


Immortals

by xSophie2x



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Big Hero 6 - Freeform, Cool technology, Friends to Lovers, Grief/Mourning, Happy Ending, M/M, Puppy Pack, Sad Liam Dunbar, Thiam Disney Movie Fest, inventions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-17
Updated: 2019-07-05
Packaged: 2020-05-13 13:10:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 38,425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19251868
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xSophie2x/pseuds/xSophie2x
Summary: My attempt at Big Hero 6 with the Puppy Pack and Thiam. This includes robots because Liam likes to build those, the Puppy Pack as superheroes and secrets that are revealed.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I really tried to write this in a way that's understandable for people who haven't seen the movie. I hope I succeeded in that. Enjoy! :)

# In a dark alleyway, safely hidden away from the sight of the town, there were a lot more things going on than any passerby who happened to walk by could see. The sounds of a bot fight were echoing against the walls of the alley, where a man and a woman were sitting across from each other as they controlled their impressive looking, little robots to battle each other, and were surrounded by a large group of people watching them and betting money on which robot they thought would win.

Liam was standing at the back, watching with anticipation over some girl’s shoulder to see which bot would win, with his own little bot in his hands. He waited until the round was over, and the soft groaning of the people who had bet on the wrong bot and had now lost their money reached his ears, before he stepped forward. 

‘Can I try?’ 

A girl with pink hair and a black piercing, who was presumably in charge of the money, looked over her shoulder and stared at him skeptically, looking a little bored as she blew a bubble from her chewing gum, and the big guy in the tracksuit, who had won the previous battle and was still sitting on the ground, started laughing hard and mockingly. 

‘You?’ he snickered, ‘You want to go against me?’ he asked, looking at Liam as if there was no way he was gonna be good enough to beat him. Liam knew who he was, he was known as the guy who had won the most battles in underground bot fights out of anyone in town, but he still believed it was worth a shot. 

‘Yes,’ he said bravely. 

The pink-haired girl took a look at him, her eyebrows raised. ‘You gotta pay to play,’ she said, her voice sounding bored. 

Liam nodded, reaching into his back pocket to pull out some bills he brought with him, and put them into the bowl she held out to him. She took a step back then, nodding that he could go sit down across from the big guy, and waited until he had done that and had placed his little robot in front of him, before she gave any sort of sign that they could begin the fight. 

Liam’s robot was small and weak-looking, like it could be easily defeated, but Liam knew that would just be deceiving for his opponent. His bot was made out of all different, smaller parts, that could all split apart and attach to the opponent or re-attach back together to a robot again, making it easier for him to defeat the other robots. 

With his tongue a little out of his mouth in concentration, a frown on his face, Liam stared at the two robots in front of him, unable to keep the grin off his face. He had to admit that it was a bit of a slow start for him, but after getting used to it, battling the other guy’s robot wasn’t so hard anymore. He could steer his bot around the other one with ease, splitting it up in smaller parts sometimes and re-attaching them around the other guy’s bot, doing it over and over again and making all the right moves until he was defeated. 

The other guy looked up in shock, his mouth hanging open so wide that it actually looked a little funny. Liam stood up with a satisfied grin, wiping his hands off on his jeans with a proud feeling. ‘And that’s how you do it,’ he laughed, unable to keep the faintly cocky tone from sounding through his voice and secretly enjoying this chance to brag about it a little bit. 

After all, he’d beaten one of the guys that was really known for being good at in underground bot fighting. 

The other guy regained his composure quickly enough though, standing up just as Liam grabbed his robot and turned around. He swallowed, the happy feeling disappearing quickly and dread washing over him as the older guy towered over him intimidatingly. His jaw was clenched in anger and Liam suddenly had the feeling that this wasn’t going to end well. 

‘You think this is funny, do you?’ the guy growled. ‘Guys?’ he asked as he looked over his shoulder, to where a few equally as intimidating looking men with tattoos were standing. 

Liam swallowed and took a step back nervously, ready to run if he had to, because there was no way he would be strong enough for these guys. The feeling like he was on top of the world because he had won from this guy, was completely gone. 

Fortunately though, it looked like he wouldn’t have to then. The sounds of a bike nearby caught his attention, the tires screeching against the pavement as it came to a stop, and Liam looked up, letting out a sigh in relief. ‘Scott!’ 

‘Liam, over here!’ Scott called back at him, and Liam started to run towards him to the end of the alley. He couldn’t resist it though, to turn back to the guys behind him one more time, and give them a little, triumphant wave, grinning as it pissed them off more. He was at the end of the alley then, jumping on the back of Scott’s bike and putting on a helmet, as Scott speeded away, and out of the street. 

***** 

‘What did I tell you about these robot fights?’ Scott asked as they walked up to the house, though there was no denying the worried tone that sounded in his voice. 

‘Yeah, yeah, I know,’ Liam sighed from behind him, keeping his gaze at the ground and his hands in his pockets. ‘But I think I could be good!’ he exclaimed then, looking up. ‘I won tonight!’ 

Scott chuckled. ‘Well, you know what aunt Lisa thinks of it. She called me to find you when you didn’t pick up your phone.’ 

‘How considerate,’ Liam mumbled sarcastically, but smiled innocently when Scott raised his eyebrows. 

He knew what his aunt Lisa and Scott thought of these robot fights indeed, they were always worried something would happen, and now after tonight, something almost had. Liam hated that he’d given them a reason to worry. 

When the door opened he looked up, as aunt Lisa stepped outside. ‘Thank God, Liam, I’m glad you’re home,’ she sighed, when she saw the two boys standing on her porch, giving Liam a quick hug before looking at Scott. ‘I was starting to think you two wouldn’t come back anymore.’ 

‘Nah,’ Scott chuckled, walking towards the door. ‘I know where to look by now.’ 

Liam rolled his eyes, but then he sighed and told himself to go have a nice evening here with Scott and his aunt. It always ended up being quite nice after all. He followed them inside, answering his aunt’s question about whether his battle at least went well tonight, and after she made them some tea, he and Scott took their mugs upstairs. Past the spare bedroom, that was meant for Scott since he stayed over so many times, they walked to Liam’s room, and after closing the door, Liam fell down in the chair by his desk. He started his computer up, just as Scott asked: ‘Are you serious about starting a career in bot fighting?’ 

Liam grinned, turning around to where Scott was sitting on the bed. ‘Yeah! It’s… lucrative,’ he laughed proudly. 

Scott sighed, even though he had a soft smile on his face. ‘Doesn’t mean that other things can’t be as well,’ he said quietly. 

Liam remained silent for a moment, thinking, before he said: ‘Like going to the same college as you?’ 

He couldn’t deny that a part of him was secretly kind of curious about Scott’s college, especially since he talked about it all the time. Despite that though, Liam had never really been able to form a positive opinion about the school. Scott’s stories had never really sounded appealing enough to him, because secretly, he thought that Scott’s school was actually just for nerds. And he knew he wanted to start a career in bot fighting, it was possible. He hadn’t done it for very long yet and it had taken him a while to get used to it and get better at it, but now that he was, he knew that it was the one thing that made him most excited. 

‘Ah, but how can you know what kind of school my college is, if you’ve never been there,’ Scott laughed triumphantly then, interrupting Liam’s thoughts, before his face turned serious again. ‘Seriously though, where do you see this going? I mean, don’t get me wrong, it’s great that you’re doing something that you enjoy. But you graduated high school a year early, you’re smart, and you haven’t planned anything.’ 

‘Yes, I have,’ Liam argued, nodding towards his computer screen where he looked up the location for another bot fight for tonight, not able to resist despite telling himself that he would stay here earlier. He knew it wasn’t the first thing that most people thought about as a career, but there were still a lot of people who made their money from it. 

Scott sighed. ‘You’re going again?’ 

Liam nodded proudly, standing up and grabbing his little robot from his desk, leaving his half full mug of tea where it was. ‘Yep. I wanna see if it will go as well as last time.’ 

He couldn’t deny that he wasn’t a little freaked out about what happened, but now that he’d defeated the guy that was known for being good, he was confident enough that he could do well again. 

Scott remained silent for a moment, lost in thought, but then he stood up and grabbed the keys of his bike from the desk. ‘Alright,’ he said, walking towards the door. ‘Come on then.’ 

Liam’s eyes widened. ‘You’re coming with me?’ he asked surprised, as it actually quite meant something to him that Scott understood why he liked the things that he did. 

‘Yeah,’ Scott nodded, grinning. ‘I can’t stop from you going, clearly, so then I’ll just have to take you there.’ 

Liam grinned widely at that, as the comment really made him happy. Maybe Scott would finally see what it was really like, and understand. Scott had always been almost like a brother to him, and his opinion mattered to Liam. 

He followed Scott down the stairs, outside to his bike, where he put on a helmet and climbed on the back, holding onto Scott tightly as he drove them to the next bot fight. 

Soon though, it became clear to Liam that it wasn’t a bot fight at all that they were going to. The realization of where they were really going hit him as they drove past the place of the fight, and his thoughts were confirmed then as Scott parked in front of college. 

Immediately, Liam pulled off his helmet. ‘This is not where you said we would go!’ 

Scott sighed softly, giving him a reassuring smile and nodding at him to come along. ‘Liam, you’ll like it, I promise. Come on.’ 

Liam let out a sigh, remaining by the bike for a moment, before catching up with Scott. Now that he was here, he might as well see what it was all about. He followed Scott inside, walking behind him as the older boy lead him through long corridors, until they arrived at a room that Liam guessed was Scott’s classroom. 

He stepped inside, not knowing what to expect, before he looked around and was blown away by what he saw immediately. 

In the room, there was a small group of four boys all working on what seemed to be their own science projects, all with concentrated frowns on their faces. All of their projects seemed to be complicated though, requiring the most concentration that the boys could give, and it impressed Liam deeply. 

He already saw how cool everything here was, realizing with a blush on his cheeks that he may have been wrong about this place, but he made sure to turn away from Scott and not let him see, not giving him the satisfaction of it. 

Scott chuckled, nodding towards the room. ‘Come on,’ he said. ‘Let’s go meet everyone.’ Liam nodded, a little too eager maybe, and he followed Scott to the dark-skinned boy in the corner of the room, who was standing by one of the bigger machines. 

‘Mason!’ Scott called, making the boy look up. Immediately, a big smile formed on his face. 

‘Hey!’ he greeted cheerfully. 

‘Mason, this is Liam,’ Scott introduced them then, staying silent as Mason nodded and put the tool he had in his hands back on the table, before wiping his hands on his jeans and holding his hand out to Liam. ‘Scott finally managed to take you here then? He told us how much trouble it cost him.’ 

‘I, eh…’ Liam started nervously, feeling his cheeks heat up at the thought of Scott mentioning him to his friends, but Mason interrupted him. ‘I’m joking,’ he laughed. ‘It’s nice to meet you. Here, watch this!’ 

Liam reacted just in time to see the apple that Mason throws at him, between the two parts of the machine, only to be cut in perfect, thin slices then. His jaw dropped. 

‘Wow…’ he breathed out, stepping closer to the machine as Mason flipped a switch and green lasers appeared. ‘Laser-induced plasma?’ in awe, as he looked at the plasma, the hot energy that had the ability to cut or melt anything. He was pleasantly surprised with how Mason had thought of the idea to improve the accuracy of it with lasers, so he would have more control over how he made the cuts, like he’d shown with the apple he’d thrown through the lasers and turned into perfect slices. 

‘Yep,’ Mason nodded proudly, beaming, before going back to work. ‘Pretty cool, huh?’ 

Cool indeed, Liam thought, taking another look at the machine. He could feel the excitement coursing through him, making him a little restless, wanting to check out everything immediately, and all at once. Again, he regretted not going here with Scott sooner. 

Scott chuckled. ‘Come on, I’ll show you the rest.’ 

Liam nodded, following after him to the rest of the room. Scott showed him everything, and let him meet the other three boys, Alec, Nolan and Corey. With wide eyes, Liam watched as Corey worked on a smaller machine that would make objects invisible, and as the machine wasn’t working properly yet and some of the test objects still flickered, Corey frantically tried to improve it. Alec then flew by them, screaming at them to get out of the way as he drove past on his speeding bike with extremely thin wheels, before Liam looked towards Nolan, who seemed to be working on something that was leaning more towards chemistry. 

Liam couldn’t get enough of it. 

‘I see you like it then?’ Scott said, and Liam sighed, knowing that it was pointless trying to hide it anymore. ‘Yeah, I do.’ 

Scott smiled, nodding at him to come along. ‘Come on,’ he said. ‘There’s still one thing I want you to see.’ 

‘Yeah?’ Liam grinned, following Scott to a door leading to a slightly smaller room. ‘Are you finally going to show me what you’re working on?’ 

‘Oh, don’t be like that,’ Scott joked. ‘I couldn’t even convince you to come here before tonight.’ 

Liam grinned, stepping into the room, and felt a little surprised when he saw that it wasn’t empty. He’d thought that it was just Scott’s room, but one of the two small desks that were standing in the room was taken up by a boy that seemed to be closer to Scott’s age than the four that were outside in the bigger room. 

‘Hey Scott,’ the boy started when he heard Scott come in. ‘Can you pass me the…’ He turned around then, pausing when he saw that Scott wasn’t alone. ‘Oh, hey,’ he greeted Liam, a little surprised, but friendly nonetheless. 

But Liam remained still, frozen to the spot, as he looked into the other boy’s eyes. He was taken aback by how green they were, how beautifully green, and how the boy’s low, slightly rough voice made it a little hard to breathe for him. Because wow, Liam saw how beautiful this boy was. 

‘Liam, this is Theo,’ Scott, said, introducing them. ‘Theo, Liam.’ 

With a little difficulty, Liam tore his eyes away from Theo, looking towards Scott and nodded, letting him know that he got it. 

Theo smiled then, looking at Liam when he said: ‘It’s nice to finally meet you. Scott always speaks pretty highly of you.’ 

Liam blushed, shooting a look in Scott’s direction with a warning and wondering what Scott had said, before greeting Theo with a smile, unable to ignore how good-looking he was. Wow. He had never really seen eyes that green. 

‘So,’ he asked then. ‘Why are you not working outside with the rest?’ He hoped that the question didn’t sound too harsh, realizing that it may have sounded that way, but Theo just laughed, and Liam already knew that it was a sound that he wanted to hear again. 

‘We can just concentrate a little better in here, where it’s a little more quiet,’ Scott responded then. ‘And this way we can help each other sometimes.’ 

Liam nodded in understanding, he got that. He’d already heard that the other four could be a little loud out there sometimes. 

Curiously, he looked up then, crossing his arms. ‘So what are you guys working on?’ he asked, looking from Scott to Theo. ‘Can I see it?’ 

‘Sure!’ Scott replied, walking around his desk to get the thing he’d been busy with. Liam turned to Theo then, smiling curiously. 

‘Here, look, I got this,’ Theo replied with an excited smile, moving away a little so that Liam could get a better look of what he was working on, on his desk. He grinned, liking it that Theo sounded so excited about showing him something, and on the desk he saw something that was obviously still unfinished, a work in progress, but what almost looked like a pair of wings. 

Liam looked up with wide eyes. ‘How does that work?’ 

Theo chuckled at that, taking a look at his project too. ‘These, the wings…,’ he said as he nodded towards the things on his desk that Liam already thought were wings. ‘Are supposed to be attached to that,’ he nodded towards the things in the corner next to his desk that Liam guessed was supposed to be some sort of suit. ‘But they’re a long way from being finished yet,’ Theo concluded. 

Liam grinned, nodding in understanding and brushing his fingers over the hopefully soon to be finished wings, impressed with Theo’s project. He thought Theo obviously had to be pretty smart to even think of something like this. 

Theo smiled, seeming to know what he was thinking. ‘Scott’s already further with his project than I am, though. And it’s pretty impressive too, I gotta say.’ 

‘Yeah?’ Liam looked up, over his shoulder to where Scott was standing behind them. He seemed proud, of his project, and next to him was standing what seemed to be a red sort of box. Liam raised his eyebrows. 

‘Theo?’ Scott asked then, grabbing a roll of tape from his desk as he waited until Theo wordlessly extended his arm to him. He placed a piece of tape on Theo’s forearm, and with a short, quick tug, he pulled it off again as Theo groaned softly in pain and Liam shot a look at the red box. It opened, revealing a very big, white, marshmallow-looking robot. 

‘Hello, I am Baymax,’ it said. 

Liam’s jaw dropped. With wide eyes he turned to Scott, his mouth half open in shock. ‘What is that?’ 

Scott chuckled, scratching the back of his neck. ‘This, is Baymax,’ he started. ‘He’s still very much a work in progress, I know, because sometimes he still gets stuck or malfunctions. But eventually, I hope to make him a personal nurse for someone, so he could heal them if they have an injury. Like he was supposed to do with Theo.’ He nodded towards the slightly red spot on Theo’s arm where the tape had been, and Liam nodded. ‘But it’s not really working yet, as you can see. He’s not doing what he’s supposed to do yet. I just hope that in time I can get it finished, and help a lot of people with this.’ 

Liam smiled faintly, just nodding slightly. Of course Scott would come up with something like that. He was one of the best people Liam knew, of course Scott’s creation was supposed to help others. He wasn’t surprised. But he was impressed. 

‘It sounds great,’ he said honestly. ‘I really hope for you that it’ll work the way you want it to soon.’ 

Scott grinned. ‘Thanks,’ he said, as he started to make sure Baymax was put back into his box again. ‘But I think we best get home for now. It’s getting late.’ 

Liam hesitated. He didn’t really want to go, he knew, not when he felt so at home here, and he could look at other people’s creations all evening, and Theo turned out not only to be really good-looking, but incredibly nice and funny as well. He knew Scott was right though, and he nodded. 

‘So I’ll see you around then, Liam?’ Theo asked softly behind them as he got ready to leave with Scott, and as he looked over his shoulder, he hoped he wasn’t wrong about Theo looking hopeful that he would get a positive answer. 

‘Yeah,’ he said, because he knew that he wanted that, and he was going to make sure that they would. 

Theo smiled at that, and after saying goodbye to him, Liam followed Scott back out of the room and into the larger room again. He shouted a quick goodbye at Mason and the rest, getting a quick, cheerful goodbye in return, and Liam chuckled, walking out into the corridor. 

There, he finally felt like he wasn’t able to hold back his excitement anymore. ‘That was awesome!’ he exclaimed, looking up at Scott with a grin on his face. ‘I have to go to this school, I can’t believe I never even wanted to see it before now…!’ 

Scott chuckled, smiling at him. ‘I knew you’d like it here,’ he said simply, and Liam nodded, because man, did he like it here. If he could, he would sign up right now. 

Before he could say as much, however, they were interrupted by a new voice, and when Liam looked up, he saw an older man with just a light stubble walking towards them. 

‘Hey Scott, hello,’ he greeted them in a friendly voice. ‘I wasn’t expecting to still see you here so late.’ 

‘I was just showing him around, professor Hale,’ Scott replied, before turning to Liam. ‘Liam, this is professor Peter Hale,’ he explained. ‘He’s one of the best teachers here.’ 

Liam smiled, and professor Hale shook his hand, greeting him. ‘I hope you like it here so far.’ 

‘I do,’ Liam responded honestly, excitedly, when he thought back on all the awesome things he’d seen tonight. If only he could apply now… He would definitely have to ask Scott about it later. 

‘Oh, and you like bot fighting too, I see,’ Peter said then, nodding towards the little robot that Liam still had in his hand, as he had thought that Scott would’ve taken him to a bot fight tonight. 

He nodded, and Scott chuckled, sending a quick look at the robot in Liam’s hands. ‘Professor Hale actually created those,’ he explained, and Liam looked up in shock, his jaw dropped. ‘Really?’ 

Peter couldn’t help but let out a chuckle at that, and he nodded. ‘Yeah. They really work well, don’t they?’ 

Liam nodded, thinking back on how he had won his bot fight earlier that night, and suddenly he was filled with admiration for professor Hale, the person who had created this type of robot. 

That was just one more reason to apply to this school. 

‘Well,’ Peter interrupted his thoughts then. ‘I still got some work to do. But I’ll see you tomorrow, Scott.’ 

Scott nodded and Peter turned away then, walking away again. Liam turned to Scott with wide eyes, asking him the question he’d wanted to all along. ‘Where can I apply!?’ 

Scott chuckled, nodding towards something on the wall behind Liam, and he turned around, looking at a poster of what seemed to be some sort of science fair. ‘That’s the showcase from our school,’ Scott explained. ‘They give it every so often, I don’t really know. But you can present your projects there, and the professors here then decide whose projects are good enough to let them into the school.’ 

Liam swallowed. ‘That doesn’t sound easy,’ he mumbled, suddenly feeling concerned. 

‘Nah,’ Scott laughed, wrapping his arm around Liam’s shoulders and leading him towards the exit. ‘You’re good enough, I’m sure of it. You’re really smart, those other people there won’t even stand a chance.’ 

Liam bit his lip, letting his gaze fall to the floor as he let Scott’s words get through to him. He could only hope that he was right. 

***** 

With a grin, Liam stared ahead at the hills before him, as he stood with Scott in a slightly more secluded spot a little away from the school and the building next to it where the showcase had been held, leaning against the wooden fence around the spot. 

‘You did it, buddy,’ Scott said proudly, looking in the same direction as Liam. ‘I told you you’d do it.’ 

Liam smiled, feeling the soft late night breeze blowing over his arms. ‘Yeah, yeah,’ he mumbled with a blush, though he couldn’t deny that he felt quite proud of himself too and didn’t mind relishing in Scott’s I told you so’s as he thought back on the showcase. 

His microbots, inspired by the robot he used for bot fighting, had stolen the show. They were a smaller model of his robot, had the same design, but because Liam had spent four days in a row creating them, there were now more than a hundred microbots that together, and they could be used as a pretty unbeatable weapon. They could all be controlled by a single neuro-transmitter, that was like a controller you could put around your head, and you only had to think of something for them to do, and they would. 

Liam had to admit that he’d been pretty nervous, but Scott was there, and Theo and his other friends from college had been there to help too. Before it was his turn to present his project, Scott and Theo had calmed his nerves, and Liam quickly figured out that he liked Theo. He was nice, and they got along so well. Liam wanted to keep spending time with him. 

He’d caught everyone’s attention with the presentation of his microbots, which after a bit of a rough start, quickly got better. Liam had had fun, and after his presentation, he had been accepted into the school pretty quickly. Afterwards, he had celebrated with Theo and the rest, who were really nice to him. 

Despite all the good things that’d happened that evening though, there was one thing that Liam couldn’t get out of his head. One strange thing that’d happened. After his presentation, he’d met Chris Argent, a well-known and wealthy businessman and founder of his own technology company, called “Argent Tech Industries”, who had shown great interest in Liam’s microbots. He’d offered a big amount of money to buy them, that left Liam speechless. 

The interference of professor Hale however, was what looked weird to Liam. Things between him and Argent had seemed tense, more than tense, as he repeatedly told Liam not to trust Argent with things that mattered to you. Liam didn’t understand, it must’ve been about something that happened between the two of them, and in the end he decided not to sell his microbots to Argent. They weren’t for sale. Scott prevented Argent from secretly taking one of the microbots with him then, and after Peter told Liam that he got in, they’d all celebrated together. Liam was happy with it. 

‘I can’t believe I actually got in,’ Liam sighed happily, from where he was standing with Scott now. Scott smiled looking down at him. ‘Well, you did,’ he started. ‘You…’ 

A loud noise interrupted them then, making Liam jump and having Scott look over his shoulder in shock. 

‘What’s that!?’ 

‘Fire alarm!’ Scott exclaimed, as he already started to run back to the building of the showcase and pulled Liam with him. Liam went after him, their footsteps sounding loud on the sidewalk, before they arrived back at the building, and stared up at the burning building and the raging flames in shock. Liam felt like the breath was knocked from his lungs. How could this happen? They had to do their best to avoid crashing into the crowd of people that came running outside. 

‘Hey, are you okay?’ Scott hastily asked a brown-haired girl, who was coughing pretty badly. 

She nodded, taking a deep breath. ‘Yeah, yeah, I’m okay. But I think professor Hale is still in there!’ 

With open mouth, and wide eyes, Scott turned to the burning building, and he didn’t have to say anything for Liam to know what he was thinking, and what he was gonna do. Panicked, he grabbed his arm. ‘Scott, no!’ 

Scott turned around to him, a frown on his face. ‘Professor Hale is in there, Liam. Someone has to help!’ 

With that, he pulled away, even when Liam started to protest that there were other things they could do, but he didn’t listen and ran up the cement steps that lead to the entrance. Liam let out a deep breath, trying to control his breathing before the panic settled in, and he started pacing. Help? Help? Why did Scott always have to help, the thought raced in his mind. And why he did he think this was a good way of helping, when they should’ve just called the firemen instead? 

Liam didn’t know what to do, and soon, his hands were sweating and his breathing was fast. He had to do something. 

Quickly, he turned towards the building, before he became so terrified that wouldn’t dare anymore, and started towards the steps that lead to the entrance. 

Before he could though, a loud, sudden bang coming from a powerful explosion inside the building, made Liam stop in his tracks and knocked the breath out of his lungs, making everything incredibly hot for a moment. Liam stumbled back, losing his balance, and a gasp spilled past his lips as he fell backwards. He couldn’t do it anything as he fell, and before he landed on his back and hit his head on the sidewalk, making his vision blurry before he lost consciousness, he knew. He knew that it was over.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooo... This chapter is a little different from the movie to make it more Thiam, I hope you still like it! :)

# Liam couldn’t remember the last time he’d eaten. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d thought about getting something to eat, without that thought making him feel sick to his stomach.

Instead, he felt just empty in his room, in his cold room where everything was grey and tasteless, and nothing seemed to entertain him anymore.

One thing he couldn’t seem to get out of his mind, was Scott’s empty guest bedroom next to his.

Liam sighed, tears stinging in his eyes and blurring his vision.

The thought of the funeral, that had only been a few weeks ago, was still fresh in his mind, and he could still see the pictures of Scott and professor Hale that had been standing at the front of the room during the funeral, as a memorial of them. Liam could still picture Scott, as the brother that he was to him, and saw all the things that they had done together, and all the laughs they’d shared.

His thoughts were interrupted then by the soft footsteps of aunt Lisa coming up the stairs, and into his room. In her hands, she had a new, full plate of food, that Liam was probably going to leave on his desk next to all the other ones she had brought up, and let it get cold. He just wasn’t hungry.

‘Hey sweetie, how are you?’ aunt Lisa asked carefully, replacing his still full plate from this afternoon with the new one.

Liam shrugged, and she turned around. ‘You should come down today. That weird lady with the giant hats is in the café again, you might wanna see it.’

Liam gave a short nod, that could be interpreted as a yes or a no, and aunt Lisa nodded sadly. ‘You know,’ she said, turning to the letter on Liam’s desk that he had received from professor Hale. ‘It’s been two weeks since classes started, but they let us know that it’s not too late to register.’

Liam let out a soft sigh, not looking up at her. ‘I’ll… I’ll see what I can do,’ he mumbled, though he knew that going to school without Scott there would never be as much fun as he thought.

Aunt Lisa nodded. ‘Okay,’ she said softly, walking back towards the door to go back downstairs. Before she did, though, she turned around once more. ‘Oh, and Liam? There’s someone here to see you.’

Liam’s head snapped up at that. Someone here to see him? Who could’ve possibly come to see him?

He looked up, his mouth half open in surprise as he saw Theo standing behind aunt Lisa in the doorway, and watched as the other boy waved at him shyly to greet him, as if he still didn’t really know why he had come here. ‘Hey.’

‘Hey,’ Liam responded quietly, hopefully sounding as friendly as he could manage, a thankful feeling washing over him as aunt Lisa walked out of the room and closed the door behind her.

‘I, uh…’ Theo started, not knowing where to begin, before Liam interrupted him and nodded towards the bed. ‘You don’t have to keep standing there, you know.’

‘Right,’ Theo chuckled softly, walking further into the room and taking place on the bed, across from Liam where he was sitting on his desk chair.

‘How are you holding up?’ he asked shyly then.

Liam shrugged, avoiding his gaze. ‘Don’t know.’ He knew it was a lie. But he wasn't in the mood to tell Theo how he was really doing.

Theo remained silent for a moment, before continuing. ‘We missed you at school these last two weeks. Mason, Corey, Nolan and Alec wanted to say that they missed you too and that they want to know how you’re doing. They asked me to tell you.’

Liam let out a soft sigh at that, thinking about the fact that the group had been thinking about him these last two weeks, had been the absolute last thing on his mind. Despite the warm feeling in his chest that the thought gave him, the numb guilty in his stomach and the sharp sting in his chest overpowered it, drowned it out, and he wasn’t able to focus on anything beside that. ‘That’s nice, Theo,’ he mumbled, looking down. ‘But I’m not really in the mood, can we just…’

‘I just wanted to stop by to tell you that, and to see how you’re doing,’ Theo said in a serious voice, interrupting him. ‘And I wanted to let you know that you can always talk to one of us, if you want,’ he continued. ‘If you need it, we’re here too.’

Liam’s mouth felt dry at that, and he swallowed. He didn’t think Theo and the others would understand, didn’t think they ever could, and so he was sure he wasn’t gonna take Theo up on his offer.

He couldn’t deny though, that Theo’s comments made something loosen in his chest, and he let out a soft breath. He looked over at Theo from where he was sitting on his desk chair, giving the other boy a short nod to show that he got it as he didn’t really trust his voice right then, but despite the fact that he really did appreciate Theo’s offer, he was sure he wasn’t gonna use it.

He had no idea how.

Liam swallowed, unable to look away from Theo’s clear green eyes staring into his for a moment and fumbling with his hands, but then he forced himself to. With a shaky breath he turned around in his desk chair in a sudden movement to avoid Theo’s eyes on him, and stared down at the clutter he had on there, a stinging feeling in his chest at Theo’s presence and heartfelt comment. It left him more vulnerable than he liked, in the presence of someone he only met two times now.

Suddenly, though, his attention was caught by the single microbot he still had, safe in a little plastic round box between all his other things. The one that Argent, from the famous business called “Argent Tech Industries”, had almost taken with him after having shown great interest in them, and now looked like it was trying to go somewhere. The microbot was bumping weakly against the side of the little box.

Liam frowned, taking the little box in his hands. ‘That’s weird,’ he mumbled.

‘What is?’ Theo asked softly, startling Liam a little bit, before he turned around to him and held up the box.

‘This, uh, little robot from the showcase,’ Liam said quietly.

‘It looks like it’s trying to go somewhere,’ Theo nodded after taking a look at it, and repeating Liam’s thought from earlier.

‘But that’s not possible!’ Liam exclaimed, a little panicked. ‘The microbots are attracted to each other, almost like magnets. But they were destroyed in the fire!’

With a defeated sigh, he tossed the little box back onto his desk, the tiny robot still bumping weakly against the side. ‘That thing’s just broken.’

With a soft sigh, Theo stood up from the bed and walked over to the desk to come and stand beside Liam, a determined look on his face. He grabbed the little plastic box with the microbot in his hands and turned it over a couple times, before he looked up int Liam’s eyes and asked: ‘What if it’s not?’

Liam’s head shot up at that, he looked over at Theo. ‘What?’

Theo chuckled softly, nodding towards the little box. ‘What if it’s not?’ he repeated, obviously referring to the fact that it may not be broken and really could still be attracted to other microbots.

Which meant that there were still more of them.

‘Should we…’ Theo started, the corner of his mouth turned up just slightly in a small smirk. ‘Follow it?’ he asked. ‘Find out where it’s trying to go?’

Liam hesitated, looking into Theo’s bright green eyes nervously. ‘Theo, I don’t know…’ he started a little nervous, watching as Theo immediately got an understanding look in his eyes. He couldn’t deny that he heard this little voice in his head that asked the same thing that Theo had: What if it’s not? What if it’s not broken? And he could understand that Theo was curious, because honestly, so was he. If his microbots from the showcase were still out there, and weren’t destroyed in the fire, he’d want to know. And the fact that Theo was so kind about it, even if it didn’t help with the vulnerable, guilty feeling he had for not even thinking about him and the others these last two weeks, only made him feel more determined to find out.

‘Look,’ Theo interrupted his thoughts. ‘We don’t have to go if you don’t want to, of course. They’re your robots, and we might not even find anything. But I just thought that…’

‘Okay,’ Liam cut him off, swallowing hard. ‘Okay, let’s follow it.’

Theo’s face lit up at that, his eyes bright, despite the fact that he still seemed a little unsure, wondering if Liam really meant it and not wanting to do anything that Liam didn’t want. ‘Yeah?’ he asked. Together, they walked down the stairs, Liam’s heart racing in his chest nervously as he hadn’t really been downstairs for two weeks, and he forced himself to take a deep breath when he opened the door to his aunts café and stepped inside.

His aunt Lisa spotted him almost immediately. ‘Liam,’ she smiled. ‘You’ve come downstairs.’

‘Yeah,’ Liam replied quietly, forcing a painful smile that hurt for him to do. ‘Eh, we’ve… We’ve actually got something to do,’ he continued slowly then, gesturing to himself and Theo. ‘Is it alright if we go out for a bit?’

‘Of course!’ aunt Lisa replied with a smile, glancing towards Theo for a moment, seemingly happy with whatever he’d done to get Liam out of his room. She knew it wasn’t healthy that he stayed there all the time. Liam swallowed when he saw, the look on his aunts face only adding to the already painful, guilty feeling stinging in his chest.

‘But don’t make it too late, okay?’ aunt Lisa asked then, before turning to Theo. ‘Do you want to join dinner tonight?’

Theo shook his head, and after he politely reclined and Liam promised to be back in time for dinner, they walked to the door of the café, opening it, and stepped outside into the sunlight.

There, they took a quick look at the microbot in the little box to see where it was trying to go, before they turned to the left into the same direction as the robot, and started following after it. Liam stared down at the little box he held in one hand with the other one in his pocket, to avoid looking at the older boy beside him as they walked in silence for a couple minutes.

‘You know, your… Your aunt’s nice,’ Theo said then, interrupting the silence a bit awkwardly, his hands stuffed in his pockets. ‘Is she…?’

‘My mom’s sister, yeah,’ Liam replied, nodding, before Theo could finish the sentence, and looked up, not really wanting to elaborate on the subject.

He found Theo already looking back at him, an expectant look in his eyes, but when he understood that Liam wasn’t going to continue, he nodded in understanding, with an accepting look on his face.

It left Liam with an oddly relieved feeling, and he let out a soft breath, grateful that Theo was so understanding to not ask any more questions, and glad that he didn’t have to talk about this subject anymore.

With a soft smile he looked over at the boy beside him, one that didn’t hurt as much as the one he forced for his aunt Lisa earlier, and Theo smiled back brightly. As they continued to walk further, into the same direction that the microbot was going as it still bumped weakly against the side of the box, Theo interrupted the silence by starting to tell a story about college. He told Liam about the wings that he was working on that he showed him, and how he started at the college and met Mason and the other guys there. They were funny stories about the other boys as well, about Mason’s clumsiness and the fact that Alec was apparently a bit of a daredevil, just like Liam had seen from the boys so far as well at college and at the showcase after that. They made Liam feel, for a moment, like a weight was lifted off his shoulders and took away the constant stinging feeling in his chest, made it just a bit easier for him to breathe, if only for a little while.

As they continued to walk, Theo told him about how exactly he had come up with the idea for the wings and the suit that he was working on with a smile on his face, as he was passionate about his project. Liam nodded, listening along to his story quietly as the hurt in his chest seemed a little less sharp for the moment from Theo’s stories, and they followed after the microbot, through the streets.

It lead them all the way through Beacon Hills, Liam thought, to what felt like to the other side of town. First through busy streets and then through little streets and narrow alleyways that became smaller and smaller, and still, the tiny microbot was moving and bumping against the edge of the box.

Where was it leading them, Liam wondered in shock, as they kept walking. They followed the small robot through a smaller alleyway then, that lead to what looked like an abandoned industrial area, and came to a stop in front of a big, run-down, mostly wooden building, that was towering high above them.

Liam stared up at in confusion, before turning to Theo with a frown on his face.

‘What the hell is this?’ Theo blurted, asking the same question that was burning on Liam’s tongue and doing it before he could.

Liam shook his head, looking up at the building. ‘I have no idea, I’ve never seen this before. I didn’t even know this was here. But…’ He looked down at the little plastic box he still had in his hands with a frown, to see where the little robot was trying to go, before looking back up at the building before him. The tiny robot was still bumping against the side of the box, as if it wanted to go inside, and Liam guessed that they were at the right address.

‘Do you think we should… Go inside?’ Theo asked slowly, looking over at Liam with a patient look on his face and ultimately leaving the choice with him.

Liam appreciated it, the fact that Theo was being so incredibly considerate, as they were his microbots after all. But they’d come so far already, it wouldn’t make sense to go back now.

‘Yeah,’ he said quietly then too, nodding at Theo. Theo gave him a small smile, carefully reaching out to see if Liam was okay with it, and wrapping his fingers around Liam’s wrist again.

‘Okay,’ he said softly. ‘Come on.’ Together, they walked around the building to the back, until they had found a small door there that was open, and they stopped in front of it. Theo pushed against it a little bit, opening the door a little more, to take a slight peek inside. Liam came to a stop beside him, his heart racing in his chest as he felt a little scared, and he peeked over Theo’s shoulder to get a look inside as well.

When he did, he was shocked by the sight of it. The building, which now looked more like a giant sort of shed where people could store all kinds of stuff they no longer needed, was empty and dark and a little bit dirty inside, with small metal stairs and paths everywhere.

Liam wondered why they were here, what it was inside of the building that had drawn his microbot here, even though he secretly knew that there could only be one thing.

Could it really be true, he thought. Could his other microbots, the ones that this one was attracted to like a magnet, really be here?

Shocked with that thought, Liam took a step closer to get a better look inside and took a look around the room, wondering if his previous thought was true and if anyone could be here, using this. He wondered who could be here, using this.

‘Come on,’ Theo said next to him in a low voice then, interrupting his thoughts and startling him a little bit, before he finally pushed the door open completely. Theo stepped past Liam to go inside and waited for Liam to follow him, but he froze when he felt Liam’s hesitant grip on his arm, and looked over his shoulder to where Liam was still standing in the doorway.

‘Theo…’ he whispered, unsure, a little scared to go inside.

He hesitated, and the look on Theo’s face softened. ‘Hey, it’s okay,’ he said softly. ‘We can still go back if you want.’

Liam bit his lip, still a bit unsure, but he thought of the way they had followed his tiny robot all the way out here and had come so far already. It would be weird to go back now, wouldn’t it?

‘Liam?’ Theo asked softly, and Liam saw clearly then that it wouldn’t matter to Theo either way, no matter what he decided to do. Theo would just go along with it, as he was just so incredibly considerate, much to Liam’s appreciation.

Liam let out a breath of relief at the realization and he nodded, letting Theo know that he wanted to go inside. In the end, his curiosity won it from his nervousness for what he would find in there.

Briefly, he thought of Scott and what he would do in a situation like this, although he knew. Scott had never had any trouble investigating anything and if he was scared, he never showed it. Liam always admired that about him. Vaguely Liam could hear his voice in his head, telling him that it was alright and to go with Theo.

But when the thought of Scott brought back the painful, sharp sting in Liam’s chest and the tears in his eyes, he pushed the thought far, far away.

With a deep breath he looked towards Theo, a sharp feeling of guilt coursing through him at the sight of the worried look on Theo’s face and the realization that he had left him waiting, and he nodded, wiping through his eyes rapidly.

‘Okay,’ he said bravely then, nodding at Theo. ‘Yeah, let’s go.’

Theo seemed a little unsure for one more moment, searching Liam’s face for any signs that he was not alright with a still suspicious look on his face, but then he nodded slowly. ‘Okay,’ he said softly, starting to turn back towards the door. ‘Okay, come on.’

Liam nodded and gathered his courage, following Theo inside while blinking back the last of his tears and ignored the sting in his chest, until it slowly faded to a dull pain, that seemed to be there all the time. He could do this, he thought, if he wanted to find out what was going on with his microbot and if there were really more of them. He felt some of the determination he’d had when he made the decision to follow the microbot back at the house, coursing through him again.

Together, they stepped inside, following closely after each other, and Liam’s fingers brushed against the older boy’s wrist as he walked in next to him.

Their footsteps were quiet, making sure no one would hear them if there was anyone in here, but deep down Liam had the feeling that they were just being paranoid. There was no one here after all. He looked closely at the box in his hands, still following after the tiny robot that was bumping against the side of it. Theo walked beside him as they went into the same direction that the microbot was going, until they walked around a corner and suddenly came eye to eye with what looked like a giant glass case, one that looked like it was recently built and was purposely made of glass that made it hard to look through, unless you came closer.

Liam did, but before he walked closer he couldn’t help shooting a strange look in Theo’s direction, one that said “what the hell is going on here”, and a strange, uneasy feeling came creeping up on him, making him shiver. What on earth was happening here?

Theo frowned, shaking his head as he didn’t know either, and came to stand beside him in front of the glass cage so they could see what was going on behind it a little better. With narrowed eyes, he looked through it. Perplexed, Liam followed his lead and did the same, narrowing his eyes and looking through the glass with a frown on his face as well.

On the other side, he saw two machine-like looking things, moving fast around the room as if they were automatically building something, without someone’s help. It left a bitter taste in Liam’s mouth, a feeling that something was just not right settling heavily in his chest. What the hell was going on? He thought, What were those machines doing?

And that, though, was when he noticed the two large conveyor belts coming out of the side of the cage, just around the corner of the glass cage.

With a nauseating feeling creeping up on him, Liam started towards the corner and walked around it, taking a look at the conveyor belts. When he saw what was on it, though, he felt his mouth drop open, and could only take a quick look at the microbot inside the little box that he still had in his hands.

It was now only moving weakly towards the conveyor belts, as if it were attracted to it. Like a magnet.

‘What the… What the hell is this?’ he heard Theo’s voice weakly next to him then, making Liam jump a little and look up at him, before he looked back towards the conveyor belts.

Because there, on the belts, were lying tiny little microbots, just like the one that Liam still had in his hand and was the only one that was left from the fire, and it was obvious that this was what the machines he had seen only a minute earlier were making.

At the end of each of the two conveyor belts stood a big barrel, catching the microbots that were rolling off the belts, and both were almost completely filled right up to the top, with what looked like hundreds of microbots.

Liam’s jaw dropped, and he pushed the box in Theo’s hands before reaching out towards the barrel, and scooping up a handful of microbots. ‘It’s a factory,’ he said in shock, looking up at Theo with wide eyes and his jaw dropped. ‘My microbots… Someone’s making more of them!’

Theo had a frown on his face, his eyes narrowed, clearly not liking the sight of it either. He seemed just as confused about the whole thing, and the whole place as Liam felt, but when he turned to Liam his frown made way for a sympathetic smile, ready to comfort Liam about the fact that someone was copying his project.

Or rather: stealing his project.

With a soft, defeated-sounding sigh, Liam dropped the handful of microbots that he was still holding back into the barrel, his heart hurting with the knowledge that someone had taken this away from him.

And that was when Theo elbowed him in the side, softly but urgently and making Liam jump a little as he harshly whispered: ‘Liam, look!’ making it sound like a yell and a whisper at the same time.

Startled, Liam looked up to where Theo was gesturing, following his gaze, until he saw what Theo was staring at as well.

There, hidden away in the darkness of the room, just out of sight in the shadows of the room by the back wall, were standing tons of more barrels, perhaps a hundred already, and all were filled right to the top with microbots. Altogether, there could be hundreds of microbots already, maybe even thousands.

Liam’s eyes went wide in shock and he froze, staring at the barrels in front of him. ‘What’s happening here…?’ he whispered, panicked, his heart beating faster in his chest.

He gripped Theo’s wrist, tightly, his hand reaching for the other boy’s arm almost like a reflex to hold onto the thing closest to him. He took a deep breath then, to try and calm down a little about the fact that whoever was doing this, had already made a lot of progress with so many tiny robots. His tiny robots. The ones that he had made specially for the showcase to sign up for college, that were inspired by the robot he used for bot fighting, and by Scott.

Liam swallowed hard, his heart hurting at the thought, and the other boy’s name in his head. It hurt too know that someone had taken that away from him, and the fact that his tiny robot wasn’t broken after all.

Theo seemed just shocked as he was, and as he looked around the room for a sign that someone might be here after all, he didn’t mind Liam gripping his wrist so tight that it hurt. He understood that finding all of this was overwhelming for him, as he knew that these robots were half inspired by Scott, and if it could offer the other boy some comfort, then how could he mind? He knew Scott was the reason that Liam had shown them off at the showcase, Scott had inspired him, and then to find out that someone was taking that memory away from him… Theo couldn’t imagine how painful finding all of this had to be for the younger boy, and how hard to see.

Liam’s gaze slowly wandered around the room, still restless but a little calmer than a moment ago, and he still held onto Theo’s wrist as it landed on a whiteboard in the corner. It had all kinds of things written on it, almost like a plan of action of some sort, and there were all kinds of newspaper articles hanging on it that were all connected together with a red thread.

It was like someone had actually thought out a plan to do something, to interfere with something, and had put it all down there on that whiteboard. Everything. A plan for what all these hundreds, maybe even thousands of microbots were for, and how they were gonna be used.

‘Theo,’ he said shakily, swallowing, and he shook the older boy’s arm until he had his attention. He pointed at the whiteboard. ‘Look at that,’ he said weakly.

Theo followed his gaze, until he saw the whiteboard and the plan on it too, and narrowed his eyes at the sight. He took a step closer to it then, and Liam followed after him, as he really wanted to know what kind of plan it was on that board and what all of his microbots were gonna be used for. Before they could get an actual good look at it, though, Liam was interrupted again the soft noise of his own microbot, that had suddenly started bumping against the side of the box again.

Liam frowned, looking down at it in confusion. The little thing had been silent, hadn’t moved, ever since they found the other ones. Why was it suddenly moving again now?

As it turned out though, Liam didn’t have to wait long to find the answer to that. Theo’s eyes went wide as he was standing in front of him, staring at something behind Liam.

‘Liam… look at that…!’ he managed in a stuttering voice, shocked.

Slowly, Liam looked over his shoulder, but he didn’t have to look long to see what was happening behind him.

The microbots…

They were all coming up, out of the barrels, as if someone was controlling them, and Liam saw quickly that that was indeed the case. On top of the microbots was standing someone, a man, who could move around on them as he controlled them and made the microbots form some kind of moving pillars, and he could step from one pillar made out of microbots to the next, as a kind of transport.

And a fast transport, it was.

The man, who was wearing a mask that made Liam unable to see his face, came closer to them scarily quick, and although Liam was frozen, Theo didn’t waste any time for them.

‘Liam, run!’ he shouted, grabbing Liam’s arm again and pulling him with him as fast as he could. Liam caught up with him then, hurrying and forcing his feet to go faster, until he fell into step beside Theo. They ran as fast as they could, through all the little corridors of the building, but when Liam glanced over his shoulder, he could see the microbots and the man in the mask coming closer to them still, catching up on them.

‘This way!’ Theo called, making a sharp turn to the left, and Liam switched quickly from holding onto Theo’s arm to his hand, so they wouldn’t lose each other.

He recognized the way. Theo was bringing them back to the door that they came through when they arrived, and they ran through all the right corridors and paths to get there.

‘Let’s get out of here!’ Theo yelled over his shoulder at him, as they bolted towards the door and threw it open, running outside as fast as they could. Liam didn’t know if the man was still coming after them, but he didn’t dare look. They just kept going, sprinting through the narrow alleyways that they had come through on the way to the building, back onto the streets.

It was only then, when they reached the bigger and busier streets of Beacon Hills again, that they dared to stop and Liam looked over his shoulder, resting his hands on his knees as he tried to catch his breath.

‘What… On earth… Was that!?’

Theo looked into the direction that they had come from, holding onto the little box with the microbot tightly. ‘I don’t know,’ he said, sounding scared. ‘I know what it looked like, those microbots. But I don’t know what that was, or what happened, or what those things were doing.’

‘There was a man,’ Liam whimpered. ‘On the… On the…’

Theo nodded, not forcing Liam to finish his sentence. ‘I know,’ he said, forcing himself to sound a little more calm for Liam’s sake, and placed a comforting hand on Liam’s shoulder. ‘I saw him too.’

‘Who was that!?’ Liam panted, but Theo shook his head. ‘I don’t know,’ he said softly, 'He was wearing a mask,' and looked over at Liam as a wave of anger about having some of his memories of Scott and the project he created stolen from him suddenly washed over him, crashing around him.

‘We need to find who that is,’ he managed, unable to prevent his voice from coming out like more of a growl. ‘I want to know who that is!’

‘Liam,’ Theo panted quietly, carefully reaching out and placing a comforting hand on Liam’s shoulder. ‘Breathe, please. It’s okay.’

Liam knew that it wasn’t, not really, but he did what Theo said. Theo nodded, giving him a small smile that made Liam feel a little calmer and at ease, before he said: ‘Liam, we have to go. For all we know he’s still looking for us. We have to go home.’

He panted a little, a little out of breath from their run, and Liam nodded, his anger faded a little. ‘Yeah, okay,’ he said, as his anger was replaced with the numb, dull pain in his chest that he had gotten so used too again.

Theo nodded, a soft and kind look in his eyes as he held out his arm for Liam, offering for him to hold onto it during their walk home if he wanted to. Liam sighed softly, feeling thankful for the offer, and held onto Theo’s wrist again as they started back home. He could feel the last of his anger vanishing, the dark cloud disappearing from his mind, even though the dull pain remained.

The determination was still there though, the determination to find out who the guy was and what he wanted with his microbots, even though he didn’t have to tell Theo, the older boy knew, Liam could tell by looking at him.

By the time they came back home, the memory of the man with the mask was still as fresh in their minds as it had been when they first saw him, and Liam took a few deep breaths before he was ready to go inside. Theo waited for him, calmly and patiently, before going inside together with Liam.

***** 

‘Hold on,’ Mason said, looking between the two of them with a frown. ‘There are more microbots? Like the one you had at the showcase? And you found them… In an industrial area, where you were chased by a man in a mask standing on top of them?’ he asked, as he tried to summarize the story for himself a little bit.

Theo realized that the story sounded a little ridiculous when you told it like that, but he was glad that the others had been willing to listen.

He and Liam were sitting with Mason, Corey, Nolan and Alec in their college, in one of the study rooms in the back where there were two sofa’s, and was a good place to talk without someone hearing them.

‘Yeah,’ Theo responded. ‘That’s it,’ he said as he helped Liam tell the story of what they had found in the storage building.

Liam felt thankful for it, as he was sitting next to Theo on the couch, since he didn’t think he could’ve told the story that would bring up so many memories of Scott by himself. He could feel the hurt growing stronger every time he thought about the masked man and the abandoned building again, and he was glad that he didn’t have to do it alone.

It stayed silent then, as Mason, Corey and Nolan tried to take it all in, but then Alec leaned forward with his elbows up on his knees, a frown on his face. ‘You know, guys, that doesn’t really sound like a story you can make up, just like that,’ he said. ‘More like something that needs to be fixed.’

Liam let out a soft breath at that, feeling a little relieved that someone was willing to help already.

Mason frowned a bit unsure at that, wrinkling his nose in thought, but then he nodded. ‘You’re right,’ he said, and Corey and Nolan nodded in agreement. ‘The police wouldn’t have believed you with a story like that, but someone’s gotta find out what this is. Why not us? I think we could do it.’

Liam stood up abruptly at that and started pacing around, overwhelmed that such a nice group of people he basically ignored for two weeks, wanted to help him.

He looked over his shoulder quickly though, his heart beating faster with hope, when Nolan suddenly looked up and asked: ‘Wait, are you serious? But how are we gonna do that? We know nothing about this guy, and we don’t have anything that could help us go after him. We’re just a couple of nerdy college guys.’

Liam could feel his stomach sinking and Mason frowned in thought, but then his face lit up as if he’d had an idea.

‘No,’ he said. ‘We’re a couple of nerdy college guys, who just so happen to each be working on a cool new invention, and we could surely do something with that!’

The slightly hopeful feeling that Liam had earlier came back a little, and he looked towards the group. Mason straightened his back, seeming excited about it. ‘Like we can use our abilities to our advantage, you know? Maybe we can rebuild our current inventions in such a way that will allow us to use them in a different way, and fight for a good cause. If we help each other, I’m sure we can be done with those soon enough!’

Theo nodded slowly, seemingly in thought, but the grin on his face let Liam know how excited he was about that plan. ‘Yeah,’ he said, glancing towards Liam. ‘Yeah, that could work.’

Mason nodded. ‘We could even start tomorrow, if we wanted to.’

Liam looked quickly towards Theo and let out a soft breath, touched by the way the other boy seemed to want to do something about the discovery they’d made the day before, seemed to want to make some kind of plan, while also not letting Mason get carried away. He got a warm feeling in his chest at the thought.

Corey and Alec seemed to get more warmed up to the plan as well then, but Nolan still had his doubts. ‘That’s all nice, guys,’ he said, ‘And I’m all for it. I am. But that doesn’t change the fact that we still don’t know anything about this guy.’

Liam could feel his hope slipping away a little again, when Theo looked up at him where he was standing next to the couch, and smiled. ‘Actually, that’s not entirely true,’ he said, ‘We know some things.’

Liam looked into his eyes, a bit shocked by how Theo helped him and wouldn’t let him give up hope, and the feeling of determination came back to him. ‘Yeah,’ he nodded resolutely, as he understood what Theo meant, and looked around the group. ‘Yeah, we know some things. We know that it’s someone who knew about my microbots. The only time I’d shown that to other people was at the showcase. So that means he must’ve been there.’

Nolan nodded slowly, thinking over Liam’s words as he clearly started to get it, and slowly started to get convinced.

Liam looked down, biting his lip as he thought over everything again and made it clear for himself a little. ‘I don’t know who he is, or what he wants with them, but I know he stole them while I thought they’d been destroyed in the fire. And I think… I think that he controls the bots with his mask. The neurotransmitter that he controls them with, to make them do what he wants, is in his mask!’

He looked up, to the rest of the group looking back at him with small and slightly proud-looking smiles on their faces, as they finally believed everything he was saying.

‘I’ve got a theory,’ Theo said then, sending Liam a proud smile, before looking around the group. ‘I think it’s Chris Argent.’

It stayed silent in the group for a bit then, Mason, Corey, Alec and Nolan sending him unsure looks, before Corey asked: ‘The… wealthy founder of Argent Tech Industries? Why would he…?’

‘I know, but hear me out,’ Theo said before continuing, looking at Liam. ‘You said he’d shown great interest in your microbots, right?’

Liam nodded. He remembered that too.

‘Well, I think he couldn’t really handle it well that you told him “no” when he asked you if he could buy them. He saw an opportunity for those in his company, for them to be successful. And he doesn’t like hearing “no” very much,’ Theo said.

Liam stayed silent at that, thinking over Theo’s words with a frown. He could see where Theo had come from, he really did, but despite that he still couldn’t get the question that Corey had started to ask as well out of his head. ‘But why would he do this?’ he asked. ‘And attack us? He’s a really well-known and important figure in town, wouldn’t this draw too much attention too him? What could he want? Or is really just because I said no to him? I don’t understand that.’

Theo nodded slowly, biting his lip as he realized what Liam was saying. He looked up at him. ‘Who else could the man in the mask be?’

A sigh escaped Liam’s lips at that, the empty feeling in his chest hurting him. ‘I don’t know,’ he mumbled, unable to stop the defeated tone from sounding through his voice, as he realized that he really didn’t know who else it could be. ‘But whether it’s really Argent or not, the guy stole my microbots while I thought they were destroyed in the fire. That was everything that reminded me of… Of…’

 _Scott_ , he wanted to say, but he couldn’t get the name past his lips. When he looked up, though, the understanding looks on the guy’s faces as they looked at him let him know that they understood it anyway. He took a deep breath, feeling relieved that they did.

‘They were all inspired by him, and that guy… Just took that away,’ he continued shakily, his eyes watery. ‘I don’t even understand how he could steal them, there were too many of them to make that decision in a single moment. And that fire was just an accident, how could he have known that that was gonna happen and use it as an opportunity to steal? Unless…’

Liam’s head snapped up as an idea suddenly popped in his head, leaving behind an awful bitter taste in his mouth and a heavy feeling of dread washing over him that blurred his vision. He swallowed, but the bitter taste, and the lump in his throat, stayed. ‘Unless it wasn’t.’

‘Liam…’ Mason and Theo started carefully at the same time, looking up at him with worried eyes. ‘What do you mean?’ Mason asked slowly, while Theo’s eyes searched Liam’s face worriedly as he already understood where this was headed.

The shock of the sudden realization washed over Liam with a dreaded feeling, leaving a bitter taste in his mouth, as the painful hurt of the discoveries he made awoke the anger inside him and made his eyes burn with tears. He narrowed his eyes, his vision red from anger, his fists clenched by his side.

‘Argent…’ he started slowly, his voice almost coming out as a growl. ‘He… He started the fire to cover his tracks when he stole them!’ he managed, as the realization of the two other things that that also meant washed over him and left a painful, sharp hurt deep inside of him, one that made his eyes burn with tears and his jaw clenched as the thought cut through him. Realizations that could only be expressed in anger, as he didn’t know what else to do right then with the sharp stinging feeling he had in his chest in that moment, the hurt that the discoveries brought along with them. He looked up slowly. ‘Argent…’ he growled, as he could barely get his next sentence past his lips. ‘He’s responsible for… For Scott. He started the fire. And…’

He didn’t finish his sentence, didn’t look around the group. He couldn’t right then, not with the way the realizations pressed heavily on his chest, making it hard for him to breathe and the anger made the tears sting in his eyes, and he could already imagine the worried looks on everyone’s faces.

He didn’t pay attention to it though, not when the only two things on his mind were the discoveries from earlier. Argent… Argent started the fire to cover his tracks and steal his microbots, and in doing so, Scott… Scott died, and Liam now understood that he didn’t have to and Argent was responsible for that, and it was all getting too much for Liam. He swallowed hard, trying to blink back his tears that threatened to fall and swallow the bile in his throat, as he was sure he was gonna be sick right then, at the thought of what had happened. ‘And he didn’t even have to!’

‘Liam…’ a soft voice started worriedly then, Theo’s voice, cutting through the noise in Liam’s mind as he understood what Liam was thinking, and Liam looked up slowly.

A worried look settled on Theo’s face and he stood up slowly, moving his hands up and down and signaling that Liam needed to breathe, and nodded when Liam understood.

‘Breathe, okay?’ he asked quietly. ‘Just breathe. Focus on that.’

Liam did it briefly, before a pained noise spilled past his lips and the anger took over again. He looked up at Theo, an angry, hurt look in his dark eyes. ‘We have to catch this guy,’ he growled, his dark eyes meeting Theo’s understanding ones, and a wave of anger and a flash of a memory of Scott crashed around him. Because how could this have happened? How could Argent possibly have been so cruel to even do something like this, and be responsible for the fact that someone so innocent couldn’t be here anymore, he thought with his jaw clenched still. The thought of Scott’s… Death, being… Unnecessary, now, made him feel sick to his stomach, and it only made him hate Chris Argent even more.

Now, all he wanted to do was find him and interrupt whatever plan he had and take his microbots back, and let Argent know exactly how he felt.

‘Liam…’ Theo said worriedly then, giving him a concerned look and wordlessly asking him if he was okay. Liam knew he wasn’t, and his fists were still clenched by his sides.

‘Hey, and we will do something, okay?’ Mason spoke up carefully then, after exchanging a worried look with Corey and Theo, and leaned forward to look up at Liam.

‘I promise. That’s what friends are for, right? To help each other, and be there when they’re upset, right? I can’t imagine what you must be feeling like right now,’ Mason said, giving away that he also understood what Liam thought, about what had really happened the night of the fire. ‘So we do this, if you feel like it’s what you need right now. I have to admit, the guy deserves to be caught and not fucking get away with this. So we’ll help you,’ he said, as the rest of the group nodded in agreement. ‘But… We’d still do this, we’d still be there, even if we weren’t gonna do something. Okay? We’re here for you. But we just don’t want to go into this without a clear plan,’ he explained quietly, carefully eyeing Liam to see if the anger was still coming off of him in waves. ‘So we’ll find this guy, yeah. But not with any rash decisions made out of anger, okay? We have to be careful.’

Liam said nothing, though he couldn’t deny that the words got through to him, and worn off the worst sharp edges of his anger. Theo nodded in agreement at Mason’s comment, at how much he agreed with it, and looked over at Liam. The boy had his arms crossed, his jaw clenched tightly, and the pain in his eyes was clear. Liam could feel his heart hammering in his chest with hurt, and his chest went up and down fast with how fast he was breathing.

‘How about we meet back here again tomorrow?’ Mason asked then, looking at Liam, to start making a plan to catch the guy that had started the fire. ‘I know a classroom at the back of the school with doors that lead outside, where no one can see us. We can start on our inventions there like we talked about? And maybe after that we can go back to that industrial area where you’ve been, to see if maybe we can find something more there?’

Liam looked over at him, his arms crossed and his jaw clenched tightly, and his foot tapping on the floor in thought. Mason looked back at him worriedly. ‘Liam? Is that alright with you?’

‘Yes,’ Liam said, nodding shortly. ‘Alright.’

Theo nodded, and Mason tore his eyes away from Liam before looking around the rest of the group. ‘Should we say ten, here tomorrow?’ he asked.

After everyone agreed, and they’d made the plan to come back tomorrow, Theo stood up again and looked over at Liam. ‘I think it’s best if we go home now,’ he said softly, nodding towards the door as he remembered how angry and upset Liam had been. ‘Come on. I’ll walk with you.’

Liam nodded silently, walking towards the door, where he turned and gave a quick goodbye before stepping into the hallway.

‘Bye, guys, see you tomorrow!’ Theo said, and the rest responded with: ‘Bye, see you tomorrow!’

Theo followed after Liam then, stepping into the hallway and walking through it, before they stepped out onto the street. Liam had his gaze directed down at the floor, his shoulders and jaw clenched tight, as all the angry thoughts of the fire and what had really happened raced through his mind and wouldn’t leave him alone, like a haunting. Theo cast a quick glance towards him, as Liam could feel his anger wearing him down, making him more tired than ever, and Theo could see that it did. Home sounded good right now, Liam thought, and suddenly, he was more than glad that Theo wanted to walk with him.

*****

‘Here we are,’ Theo said, as they reached the top of the stairs and shuffled into Liam’s bedroom. He held the door open, following in after Liam, and watched silently as the other boy let out a sigh and sunk down on the bed.

‘Liam,’ he started, as he closed the door and stood by the end of the bed. ‘Do you… Do you want me to go downstairs and ask your aunt if she wants to bring you something?’ he asked unsurely. ‘Are you hungry?’

Liam shook his head, staring ahead and avoiding Theo’s gaze, his hands fumbling in his lap. Theo frowned, looking at the boy with slumped shoulders, and understood that he must really feel hurt right now, after all he discovered about Argent and the fire and… And Scott. Theo wished he knew what he could say to him, but his mind was blank, didn’t know what to say, and he felt like he didn’t know Liam well enough yet to know what would help him.

Liam surprised him then, by patting the space on the bed beside him, signaling to Theo to come over and sit next to him. Theo did, and while still fumbling with the hem of his shirt, Liam looked up at him.

‘Can I tell you something?’ Liam asked quietly. ‘You want to know why I live with my aunt right?’

Theo stayed silent, though Liam could see on his face that he wanted to, and he looked down at his lap, with his heart racing in his chest. ‘My, uh… My parents died when I was three,’ he managed quietly, looking down. ‘I… I don’t remember too much of it, but it was painful. I guess I was lucky I had my aunt then, but when I first started living with her, we both had to get used to the situation. Me, because I lost my mom, and she her sister. But like I said, I was so young, I don’t remember a whole lot. And… We made it work.’

Liam looked up, looking at the understanding look on Theo’s face as he continued. ‘There were times, of course, when I missed my parents, wondered what they would’ve been like, but in those times I had… I had…’

‘Scott,’ Theo finished his sentence softly, nodding shortly.

Liam nodded, tears pricking in his eyes, as he looked down again. ‘He was always there, and he was kinda like an older brother to me,’ he said shakily, explaining his relationship with Scott to Theo. ‘Aunt Lisa liked him too, and he always hung out here a lot, so that was why she prepared the guest bedroom for him.’

Theo nodded, understanding their friendship a little bit better now, and without hesitation he moved his hand and placed it on top of Liam’s, squeezing softly. Liam looked up. ‘I’m sorry,’ Theo said sincerely. ‘I know Mason has said it before, we’re here for you, and we mean it. I mean it. If you wanna talk, I’m here.’

Liam nodded slowly, looking up into Theo’s eyes, with a look of wonder on his face. Talking didn’t come easy to him, he had to admit, it never had, he had always expressed emotions in a different way, and so he was still a bit wary when Mason and the others offered that he could. But Theo seemed so calm and kind about this, making it so easy to talk to him and feel like he could trust him even if they’d only met each other a couple of times, and Liam knew that it was also because of their little adventure at the abandoned warehouse together, something they’d done together that they shared now with no one else.

‘You know,’ Theo said then, ‘I’ve known Scott for two years, since we both went to the same college,’ he said, startling Liam a little at the mention of the name, and smiling sadly. ‘And in that time, he used to mention you sometimes. He spoke pretty highly of you, he always seemed pretty proud to me.’

Liam’s heart fluttered at that, tears stinging in his eyes, and he sniffled. ‘Really?’ he asked shakily, looking up at Theo. He knew deep down that that was how Scott felt, but to hear it out loud from someone else… That really took away the last bit of doubt he had.

‘Yeah,’ Theo nodded reassuringly, smiling softly, before he briefly squeezed Liam’s hand. ‘Liam,’ he continued then more seriously, the smile gone. ‘Are you… Are you okay?’ he asked worriedly, as he remembered how angry and upset Liam had been earlier. And rightfully so.

Liam sniffled, letting out a sob, and he looked up at Theo with wet eyes. ‘I guess not really,’ he managed then, mumbling, his shaky voice making it clear to him that he wouldn’t have been able to lie about this even if he wanted to. Because it was like what he’d realized earlier, that Theo was so calm about this, and so, so kind and patient, and it was to easy to talk to him and felt so right to trust him because Theo had been there when he found out what was happening with his microbots.

‘You know that’s okay,’ Theo said with a small smile, squeezing Liam’s hand and opening his arms for him, as Liam leaned against sniffling after only a moment of hesitation. ‘You know it’s okay to not be okay sometimes.’ And Liam looked at him in wonder, he couldn’t deny that he felt a little bit relieved at that. He thought that the general idea usually was to try and cheer someone up if they were feeling down, as that was what most people did, as if they thought that that was the most important thing. And that was okay too, of course it was. But sometimes Liam didn’t want that, and Theo didn’t feel the need to, to do that. Liam appreciated that, the fact that he wanted to help in his own way, and was relieved when he didn’t push Liam to be happier. When he just let him be, for a moment.

‘Just… Remember what I said, okay?’ Theo reminded him softly. ‘I’m here when you need to talk.’

Liam nodded, leaning back from Theo’s arms and looking up at him with wet tearstains on his cheeks. ‘We have to find him, Theo,’ he said in a serious voice, letting Theo know how serious he was about his, as he talked about Argent and felt his anger flaring up again in his stomach.

‘I know,’ Theo said with wide eyes, taking in how serious Liam felt about this. ‘I know. And we will. That’s why we’re meeting up again tomorrow, yeah?’

Liam stayed silent, nodding, his blue eyes catching Theo’s green ones once more before the older boy moved away, and stood up. ‘I think maybe… You should get some sleep now,’ he said softly. ‘And I should get home.’

Liam nodded, looking up at him, though he couldn’t help but feel like something was missing already when Theo stood up, and moved his hand away from his. ‘Do you want me to pick you up tomorrow?’

‘N-No,’ Liam replied shakily. ‘I think I can come to the school myself.’ He looked up, forcing a smile, even though he was sure he failed and only made his eyes water more. ‘I’ll meet you there?’

Theo nodded. ‘Of course. See you tomorrow, Liam. And have a good night.’

He walked out of the room then, and Liam listened to his footsteps going down the stairs as he stripped off his clothes and changed them for his pajamas, as the tears finally spilled from his eyes and the anger flared up in his stomach again, not even bothering to brush his teeth before he lay down in bed. He shivered, curling up into a ball as the tears dripped down his cheeks, and it would be long while, he felt, before he finally, exhaustedly, fell asleep.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A lot happens in this chapter, lol :) I also don't know a lot about science or chemistry and how to describe that, so I apologize in advance for any mistakes. I tried.  
> Enjoy!

# ‘So, who wants to go first?’

They had all gathered together in the empty classroom in the back of the college like Mason had suggested, and Liam leaned back against one of the tables tiredly as he watched how the rest of the group excitedly discussed the upgrade of their inventions.

Slowly, Alec raised his hand. ‘I will.’

Mason nodded shortly, ‘Okay,’ before pushing some of the tables away to create more space for them. After getting their inventions and the tools they’d need, and discussing in which order they would work about the next inventions, they got to work on Alec’s invention, the superfast, magnetic bike with thin wheels, and Mason looked over at him.

‘What do you have in mind?’

Alec walked over to him, explaining to him what he wanted out of his with wild, excited hand gestures, but Liam tuned out the loud sound of his voice, too tired and unwilling to listen to it right now. Theo looked over at him with a concerned look on his face, walking over to him worriedly. ‘Are you alright?’ he asked quietly, so that the others wouldn’t hear him.

Liam nodded. ‘Fine,’ he managed, though he knew he couldn’t hide the way his jaw was clenched tightly and he could feel the way the anger burned under his skin, boiling and waiting to overflow, like a bomb waiting to explode, just right there reminding him of what happened, all the time. He didn’t know how he could ever forget the truth about the fire, or how he could ever get over that.

‘You can be honest with me,’ Theo said softly. ‘If you don’t want to do this, I can call off the whole thing right now.’

Liam’s head snapped up, clenching his jaw. ‘I do want to!’ he hissed. ‘That’s the whole point, Argent deserves this!’

Theo looked shocked at that, not having expected his outburst, and Liam felt a tiny stab of regret in his chest at startling him. Theo had been nothing but kind to him, even now again, making sure that Liam knew that he was there if he needed it. Liam appreciated it, the way he knew a strong bond between him and Theo had already been created since they went to the storage building together, and the way his stomach sometimes fluttered when he looked into the older boy’s eyes ever since then.

The feeling disappeared again then though, overpowered by the anger that Liam felt towards Argent, and he pushed himself off of the tables. He walked over to where the rest of the group was standing as they discussed what they should do with Alec’s bike and how they could make it better and more convenient for what they were gonna do. Behind him, he could feel Theo’s gaze burning at the back of his head, knowing that the other boy had a concerned look on his face and narrowing his eyes, but he paid no attention to it. Quietly, he listened in on the group’s plans, with his arms crossed over his chest and his jaw clenched, while a storm of thoughts about getting to Argent and more ideas of how to improve the inventions danced around in his mind.

*****

Liam had to admit, even if it was a little unwillingly, that building and upgrading their inventions offered a nice distraction for him. It gave him something else to talk about, something else to do, and belatedly, as they were in the middle of discussing Alec’s invention, he noticed that this took away some of the sharp edges in his mind. Silently but curiously, with his arms crossed, he watched as Nolan and Alec got to work on Alec’s bike with the idea that Corey had given them to make it into a pair of roller skates for Alec. Not only would he be faster with those, but also more agile and able to outrun Argent.

Next to them, Mason and Corey were standing close to each other, whispering with each other as they shared ideas of how to make Corey’s little machine into something that could make him invisible, and not just objects.

It made Liam eager to go and do something too, and as if he knew what he was thinking, Theo walked over to him with a smile. ‘Come on,’ he said, holding out his hand. ‘I want to show you something.’

Liam nodded, letting out a soft breath as he felt a slight smile pulling at his lips, and walked outside after Theo. There on the lawn behind the school he saw the different parts of the suit and the wings that he had only seen in the classroom so far, that he knew Theo was working on.

With a proud smile, Theo looked over at him. ‘I’ve gotten a little further with these. What do you think?’

Liam took a look at the wings Theo had made, which had still just been objects up until now, and saw how they had been connected to the rest of the suit now. His head snapped up in admiration, proud of Theo for getting further, a warm feeling spreading in his chest, and happy that he had. ‘When did you do this? It’s awesome!’

‘Glad you think that,’ Theo grinned widely, picking up the suit. ‘I think we can finish it. And I’ve got an idea for you too, come here for a sec.’

Liam nodded, walking around the suit and standing beside Theo as he pointed to the back of it. ‘I think, right here, there’s some room for magnets, and then your suit can basically click into mine. You know what I mean?’ Liam looked up excitedly, nodding eagerly as he understood exactly what Theo meant and how they seemed to complement each other’s thoughts without even having to say them out loud. ‘Yeah, yeah, like clicking onto it like magnets do, right?’

Theo grinned, nodding. ‘Yeah, exactly! So we can work together!’

Liam would lie if he said that didn’t sound like music to his ears. Working together with Theo… Having protective suits that worked best when clicked together, Liam already liked the idea of it, though he swallowed at the realization of how close he and Theo would be that way. He pulled at the collar of his shirt, but couldn’t help but smile back when he caught Theo looking at him, smiling for what he knew was the first time in days.

*****

Working on the inventions, and finishing them all, took a while, and a little longer than Liam would like to admit, though he wasn’t surprised. He knew that the upgrades couldn’t be fixed in just an hour, and so it didn’t come as a surprise to him when he and the group had to meet up more than once over the following past few days.

He couldn’t deny though, that it had offered a nice distraction for him, something else to do and make himself busy with, and work on the projects with the small group of people that had become his friends. He was pleasantly surprised with how easy it was to talk to them, Theo the most of all. Liam was shocked, in a good way, with how Theo’s presence seemed to be enough to numb the pain of what happened a little, take away the sharp edges and make him feel a little more at ease. He had the urge to smile around Theo more often, sometimes not even bothering to resist it.

And so, slowly, over the next few days, there was progress on their inventions which Liam had to admit was fun to do as well, growing closer with Theo and the rest of the group, until they were all finished.

Now, though, when it was done, Liam could feel his nerves growing again, making him restless and a little irritated, and he couldn’t help but pace back and forth over the lawn behind the school as they all stood outside to test their upgraded inventions. Despite that though, he couldn’t deny that that the finished and upgraded inventions all looked cool. Really cool.

For Mason, they had come up with this protective suit with gloves that had basically the same ability and laser-induced plasma as the machine Liam had seen when he first met him, and could cut through basically anything. It was perfect for both defense, and attack. And exactly how well it worked, they found out when they brought out the tennis ball machine and fired the little balls at Mason, which he had no trouble defending himself against. After getting used to his laser-gloves a little, Mason managed to make his way through the tennis balls that were being shot at him, dodging some of them and using to gloves to cut right through the rest of them.

He came to a stop in front of the tennis ball machine then, turning around with a wide grin, himself being the most excited about what he could do with those gloves now.

‘Well,’ Nolan said then, with wide eyes after what had just happened. ‘Clearly, that works.’

Mason laughed at that, looking down at his new gloves. ‘These are awesome!’ he exclaimed excitedly, and Liam forced himself to smile as small as he possibly could. It was awesome, he couldn’t deny that, but he couldn’t help but feel like the others were forgetting what they were doing this all for a little. The thought had him press his lips together in a thin line, his fingers tapping irritatedly against his jeans.

For Alec, they had managed to work out the roller skate idea that Corey had come up with, and he was all too eager to give them a demonstration of what he could do with those. Fast, with high speed so that Alec flew around them on his skates in a flash, he circled around them fast enough for them to only see a flash of the black clothes that he was wearing, and he managed to wrap the garden hose around Nolan’s legs fast enough for the other boy to be unable to stop it.

Mason and Corey burst out laughing and Theo couldn’t hold it back either, and when Liam looked over at him, a small smile pulled at his lips, the restlessness burning under his skin forgotten for just a moment, in the way only Theo seemed to be able to do it.

They tested Corey and Nolan’s upgrades then, and were excited to see that Corey’s new version of his machine worked and that he could now in fact make himself invisible. All he had to do was blend in with his background, a little like a chameleon, and it was perfect for any surprise attack. That was proved when Mason let out a little surprised, high-pitched yelp when Corey kissed his lips, and became visible again with a proud grin on his face.

Nolan had a little bag clicked onto his belt, with buttons on the side for small versions of the chemical ball that Liam had seen him working on when he first came to college. After a little test, they found out that it could melt around someone’s legs to keep them frozen in place, unable to move.

Mason and Corey cheered, happy that it all worked the way that it should, and pressed a quick kiss on each other’s lips as Nolan and Alec high-fived each other happily. Liam smiled when Theo high-fived him too. ‘Well, it looks like we’ve only got one more upgrade to test,’ Theo said then, looking over at Liam.

Liam nodded, walking after him to where Theo’s winged suit and his suit that could click into it were still lying on the lawn, as the rest of the group followed after them as well.

‘What do you think?’ Theo asked with a soft look on his face, smiling, and Liam couldn’t help but think, with a heartwarming feeling growing in his chest, that he seemed excited about this, _to do this, with him._

‘Are you ready for it? To test it?’ Theo asked, seeming eager to do it but still leaving the option with Liam in case he didn’t want to.

Liam nodded, grateful for Theo being so considerate that made him feel warm all over, but he remembered then what it was all for then and why this needed to work. They needed to steal his microbots back, they couldn’t let Argent get away with whatever plan he had, which they still needed to figure out. He clenched his fists. ‘Yeah. Yeah, let’s go.’

Theo nodded with a smile, one that by now Liam knew were blinding and could make him feel impossibly lighter even if it was a little scary, and he turned away from the older boy to put on his suit. A weirdly excited feeling for this washed over him, even if he wouldn’t let himself forget what they were doing this for, and with a small smile tugging at his lips he put his protective head gear on. When he turned around, Theo stood on the lawn already with his suit on, waiting for him, and Liam walked over to him a bit unsure, not sure how they should do this.

‘How, eh, how do we do this?’ he asked nervously, seeing the way the rest of the group grinned at them out of the corner of his eye and making his heart pound in his chest, his cheeks burning hot. He couldn’t deny that he was nervous, partly for the flight because they could fall down from a great height if it didn’t work, but even more because he realized he had to be really close to Theo for this to work, his chest pressed against the boy’s back, and he swallowed.

‘Get behind me,’ Theo said calmly, clearly sensing how nervous Liam was, and motioned for him to do what he said. Liam nodded taking a breath, walking around him and placing his hands on Theo’s shoulders, a grateful feeling washing over him when the other boy kneeled down just a little bit to make it easier for him.

He placed his feet in the little magnetic holes in the back of Theo’s suit then, climbing up, until he heard a soft clicking sound that meant he did it right, and placed his hands in the same sort of holes that were made for that.

Theo looked over his shoulder. ‘Are you good?’

Liam couldn’t deny that he was nervous still, his heart racing in his chest and his hands sweaty, but he pressed his lips in a firm line, and nodded. ‘Yeah. I’m good.’

‘Okay,’ Theo smiled, looking downward at his suit as he tried to remember how everything worked again. ‘Hang on…’ he mumbled. ‘I’m only doing this for the first time now…’

Liam swallowed, the thought of that not very reassuring to him, but then a soft rumbling sound interrupted his thoughts and his head snapped up. The little engine built in Theo’s suit, was working.

Liam let out a laugh at that, feeling like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders, and a chuckle escaped his lips when Theo jumped a bit, pushing himself off the ground and rising up into the air just a little bit. Liam looked down and around him excitedly, like a kid in a candy store, and resisted the urge to grip onto Theo’s shoulders tightly. He reminded himself of the fact that he was stuck tightly enough, and that it was safe like this. Theo wouldn’t do anything to make it unsafe for him, he'd proved that much already. ‘Are you ready for it!?’ Theo shouted over his shoulder, over the sound of the soft rumbling engine.

‘Yeah!’ Liam yelled back, unable to keep the wide grin from his face at the experience, that only grew bigger when he saw the joyful sparkle in Theo’s eyes.

‘Hold on tightly then, because here we go!’ Theo shouted, as the last thing before he got control over his suit and pushed off, soaring higher into the air with the wind blowing past them hard and loud in their ears. Liam looked down at the lawn with a grin so wide it hurt, looking down upon Mason, Corey, Nolan and Alec who were left behind cheering loudly, turning smaller and smaller until they were nothing but vague black dots on the ground.

Theo flew faster, higher, until they were high above the city with the greatest view from above. Liam couldn’t help but let out a loud cheer and Theo sent him a quick look over his shoulder, grinning widely and his eyes sparkling with freedom that made him look utterly beautiful. He focused on steering again then, using his protective arm gear and hand gear that was made for that. Liam crouched down a little further, onto Theo’s back a little more, and looked over the back of the older boy’s head to where they were going, steering past high towers and skyscrapers.

It was honestly, undeniably, the most special, unforgettable and awesome experience he had ever had in his life. He was sure he would never, ever forget just the way he felt in this moment, and he partly had Theo to thank for that as well.

Theo laughed loudly in front of him, doing a small loop just for the fun he had, before looking over his shoulder at Liam. ‘How about making a landing!?’ he screamed.

Liam nodded, a smile tugging at his lips and butterflies fluttering in his stomach at the experience, the wind soaring past them and the complete and utter joy in Theo’s eyes, and Theo made a dive forward to one of the higher buildings. He landed them on top of one of the high buildings in Beacon Hills, Liam pressed himself closer against Theo’s back anxiously as the landing went a little wobbly, but soon enough, they were back on their feet securely. Theo kneeled down a little to make climbing off easier for Liam again, and once he had, Theo took off his head gear, shaking his head a little to get the hair out of his eyes and sat down on the building, patting the space beside him to show Liam that he should come and sit too.

Liam felt like he couldn’t stop staring, unable to ignore the way his heart had fluttered when Theo shook away his hair just now, and smiled faintly as he sat down beside Theo, his cheeks burning with what he was sure was a blush as he was hyper aware of the presence of the boy next to him.

He let out a breath, recovering a little again from their brilliant flight experience, and looked over at Theo beside him and the way that the sun shined at him in just the right way. Lighting up his eyes and creating a golden glow around him that took Liam’s breath away.

For the first time in days, Liam felt a little calmer again, not thinking about anything for a moment and just allowing himself to simply sit back and relax for now, admiring the view of the city on top of a high building with one of the kindest boys he knew beside him and made his stomach flutter wildly, in a way that he couldn’t deny anymore.

***** 

‘I think it’s safe to say that that suit works,’ Theo said after a while, with a soft laugh.

Liam chuckled at that, nodding. ‘Yeah,’ he laughed as he still sat beside Theo, his legs hugged to his chest and his arms wrapped around them. ‘It does.’

Theo grinned, looking over at him. ‘So what did you think? Of the whole flight, I mean?’

Liam could feel his chest warming up at the question, thinking back on the experience. ‘It was amazing,’ he said softly, purposely staring ahead to avoid Theo’s gaze as he answered his question that left him more vulnerable. ‘It was like… A distraction. Like everything was okay for a moment, and I didn’t have to think about anything. Like I could just… Be, for a moment. You know what I mean?’

He looked over at Theo, his heart racing in his chest with anxiety, but when he did, he found nothing but understanding in the other boy’s eyes. Theo let out a soft sigh, reaching out and placing his hand on top of Liam’s. ‘Liam, I’m here for you,’ he said softly, and Liam felt a lump building in his throat as he recognized the sincerity in his tone. ‘You know that.’

Liam nodded, looking away as he felt the upcoming tears stinging in his eyes. He swallowed. ‘I know,’ he sniffled, wiping at his eyes, and swallowing away the lump in his throat. ‘Damnit!’ he whispered harshly. He didn’t want this. Didn’t want to feel so cold and vulnerable all the time, and cry all the time.

Theo brushed a soft circle over the back of his hand with his thumb once, before his eyes lit up and an idea popped into his head, and he jumped up. ‘Come on!’ he urged. ‘I know something!’

He pulled at Liam’s hand, urging him to stand up, and Liam did so reluctantly, following him to the edge of the building. He swallowed as he saw how high up they were, as it was a little more scary here than when you were flying through the air, and looked over at Theo suspiciously.

‘You’re not gonna push me off, are you?’

Theo let out a laugh at that, a slightly deep and raspy sound that sounded like music to Liam’s ears and brought back the flutter in his stomach that had almost been there constantly over the last few days, and he shook his head. ‘No, no, I’m not gonna push you off, I promise,’ he laughed. ‘But I do know something that might make you feel better.’

He looked at Liam then, with a look on his face as if it were a perfectly reasonable request. ‘Scream.’

Liam’s head snapped up, looking over at Theo as if he had grown a second head, his eyebrows raised. ‘What?’

‘Scream,’ Theo repeated, calmly, as if it was something perfectly normal. ‘It’ll make you feel better, I swear. It’ll be relieving, you’ll see, and… Up here, there’s literally no one who will hear you.’

He stayed silent for a moment, before continuing more softly: ‘I can do it with you too, if that would make you feel better…’

He sounded shy, catching Liam’s attention as the warm feeling spread through his head, and a small smile formed on his face. _God, what was happening to him? What was this boy doing to him?_

With the smile still on his face he turned, to the edge of the building, to open his mouth and let out a low, loud scream that sounded deafening to his ears and echoed against the buildings around them, bouncing off into the sky.

Theo was right. It did feel oddly liberating, when no one could hear him. Even more so when he screamed again and the other boy joined in with a wide grin on his face, until they were just two people standing on a building screaming loudly into the sky until they were hoarse and had to lean against each other from laughing too much. Liam felt like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders as he sat down next to Theo again, clutching his stomach and catching his breath, still laughing a little and his face hurt from smiling too much.

‘So, am I genius or what?’ Theo joked, receiving a push against his shoulder from Liam at the comment, though he didn’t deny it.

‘You are, you really are a genius,’ he chuckled, knowing that deep down, he meant it, before clearing his throat and a more serious expression appeared on his face again.

‘Well, thanks,’ Theo chuckled, before his smile disappeared too. ‘And so, I’ve got another surprise for you.’

Liam’s head snapped up, looking over at him. ‘What?’

‘Well, I haven’t told you yet, but there’s another little technological trick in this suit,’ Theo said. ‘I built it in, thought it might come in hand.’ He looked back at Liam, his eyes meeting his, a look that Liam didn’t recognize flickering in them for only a second before it was gone.

‘I built in a scanner,’ Theo explained quietly, staring ahead. ‘It works for your microbots, it can recognize them anywhere, so we don’t ever have to look for them or lose them again. I can just scan the one you still have, and it will tell me where the rest is.’

Liam stayed silent, frowning, having to process exactly what Theo had just told him. A scanner? Just for him? Because if that were true… Then that would mean he would never have to worry about where his microbots were ever again. And Theo had done that, just for him.

It was a lot to take in for Liam in that moment, and he swallowed, feeling his heart race in his chest as he suddenly felt warm, and looked over at Theo. ‘Are you serious? But… We already know where they are.’

‘Yeah,’ Theo nodded. ‘But I just wanted to be absolutely sure we could keep track of them. Like, Argent knew we’d been in that storage building, he saw us there, and he could’ve moved them all by now. This way we can still find them.’

Liam stayed silent, letting Theo’s words get through to him slowly. The thought that someone would go through all that trouble for him, the thought that Theo would do that, for him, was almost enough to make him tear up again. And what if it meant, that Theo felt the same way about him as he did about him? What if he had read the signs completely wrong and Theo had done all this, because he felt that same way?

The thought made Liam’s heart skip a beat.

Slowly, Theo stood up then and interrupted his thoughts, gesturing for Liam to do the same. ‘Come here for a sec.’

Liam nodded and walked over to stand beside him, and looked around over the city as he waited for Theo to put on his head gear again and turn on his scanner. Slowly, he turned his head, around the city, to scan everything to see where the microbots were and check if they were still in place.

Just as he suspected though, they weren’t, and the microbots had been moved.

Slowly, Theo took off his helmet and turned to Liam, pointing to something in the distance. ‘You see that little island over there? In the distance?’ he asked, and Liam looked past his finger in the direction he was pointing at.

‘Yeah.’

Theo looked back at him. ‘That’s where they are. That’s where we need to go.’

Liam swallowed. ‘So… They really aren’t in the storage building anymore?’

Theo shook his head, a sad smile tugging at his lips. ‘I’m sorry, Li. But, we found them. Okay? I’ll call the others to explain and meet us there.’

He turned away, starting to walk away from Liam, but he just managed to catch his sleeve and Theo stopped in his tracks, looking over his shoulder at him.

‘Just… Thanks,’ Liam whispered as he forced a small smile, meaning everything the boy had done for him in the short time of just a few days, even if he didn’t know how to say it better and hoped this would do it.

Theo’s eyes twinkled as he understood, and he smiled. ‘No problem, Li.’

He walked away then, Liam nodded shortly, and picked his helmet up from the ground as he listened to how Theo talked to Mason on the phone and explained to him where they were gonna meet up. When it was done, he walked back to Liam and scooped up his own helmet, shooting Liam a questioning look. ‘You ready to go?’

‘Yeah,’ Liam breathed, suddenly noticing just how close he and Theo actually were for him to be able to click his suit onto the back of Theo’s suit.

Theo frowned, his clear green eyes with a confused look in them meeting Liam’s blue ones, as if he wanted to ask if everything was okay, and suddenly the warm feeling in Liam’s chest couldn’t be brushed aside so easily anymore.

Before he knew what he was doing a wave of courage washed over him and he leaned forward, standing on his toes just slightly, and brushed his lips against Theo’s for just a second before he pulled back again.

Theo’s eyes were wide, staring at him, and Liam’s heart was racing in his chest so loud he was afraid Theo might hear, as he was sure it had never beat as fast as that, and he started to panic. _Was it too much? Too soon? Did he not do it well enough? And what if he was wrong, what it Theo…_

He was met by Theo’s lips on his again then though, sweeping him off his feet, and the panic and questions raging around in his mind disappeared to the background, making way for a soft, dazed and pleasant feeling as he closed his eyes and could only feel Theo in that moment, close to him, as it was just them and the rest of the world didn’t matter.

It still felt far too soon when Theo pulled back again and Liam opened his eyes, still dazed for a moment as he remembered how to breathe. ‘Theo…’ he started hoarsely.

‘I know,’ Theo cut him off reassuringly, a little out of breath too and his cheeks still flushed. ‘We can talk about this later, I promise. But right now, I know you want to go to that island.’

Liam nodded, a warm feeling in his chest as Theo always seemed to know exactly what he wanted, like he could read his mind, and he knew that this talk really would come later.

‘Okay, for now, hop on,’ Theo smiled, and Liam nodded, feeling a little calmer about going to the little island if Theo was calm too.

He did what Theo said, putting on his helmet and clicking his suit onto Theo’s, and if held onto him a little tighter and a little closer as Theo pushed off the ground again, no one had to know. They’d just had their first kiss on top of a skyscraper, and Liam’s heart fluttered, smirking as he was pretty sure that no one could compete with that.

*****

They landed on the ground of the little island together, just as Mason, Corey, Nolan and Alec arrived too and came running towards them, all in their upgraded suits and with questioning looks on their faces.

Around the island, there was a fence, to keep people away from what seemed to an old military base or something of the like, with warnings of quarantine and poisonous skulls everywhere.

Nolan did not seem reassured with it, asking panicked questions whether they should be here, while the rest of them slowly walked forward to the large, steel door that would lead into the building in the middle of the island.

‘Mason?’ Alec asked with his eyebrows raised expectantly, after they pushed against it and it became clear that the door wouldn’t open like that.

‘Alright, step aside,’ Mason said proudly, almost a bit cocky, though a hint of nervousness was still clear in his voice. With a bright flash, he turned on his laser-gloves and stepped up to the door, holding them close to the steel as a bright light and a sound that resembled that of a chainsaw erupted from his movements. Liam watched in awe, with wide eyes, as his lasers cut right through the door, in a perfect circle, until the end met the beginning again and the cut-out circle fell down as if it was made out of nothing more than cardboard.

With wide eyes and a big grin, Mason stared down at his hands. ‘This. Is. Awesome!’ he yelled out.

Immediately, Liam froze, his mouth dry and his neck hairs standing up as he shushed him. ‘Ssh, if Argent is here, he could hear us!’

‘Right,’ Mason cleared his throat. ‘Sorry.’

Together, they went in as a group, climbing over the remains of the steel door, and into the first large corridor that it lead into. Liam looked around in concentration, his alertness at the highest level, but there were no other doors in the corridor and Argent was nowhere to be seen. Their footsteps were quiet, in case someone showed up, and Liam could feel the lump in his throat, his heart beating loudly at the tension of the situation.

‘Theo?’ he whispered tensely. ‘Can you scan the microbots, see where they are?’

Theo frowned in concentration at that, looking from left to right no doubt to try and scan them, but then he shook his head. ‘No. My scanner doesn’t work down here, I think something wrong with the signal or something gets interrupted…’

Liam could hold back his frustration at that, a soft groan escaping his lips, but then his attention was caught and the group put to a stop by Corey, who was standing by a door that was slightly ajar and peeking through it.

‘Guys,’ he said quietly. ‘I think you’re gonna want to see this.’

Liam walked over to him, peeking over his shoulder, before pushing the door open further and walking into the big room that it lead to. And right there before him, standing on the ground, were the remains of what had once been a giant machine, now completely broken, with what looked like two big circles on the left and the right side of the room.

It was entirely unlike any technological machine Liam had ever seen, and unlike anything he even expected to see here. He knew it must’ve been a giant project.

‘What do you think it is?’ Corey asked, leaning over the rails of the little platform they were standing on, next to the stairs that lead down into the room, and asking the question that had been in Liam’s own head as well.

‘I’m not sure,’ he said quietly, biting his lip. ‘But…’ He narrowed his eyes, his attention caught by a logo stuck on one of the machines. ‘Look at that!’ he hissed, pointing at the logo for the others to see as a wave of anger washed over him, settling hot and dangerous in his stomach.

Because there, that logo on the machine, was Argent’s company’s logo, that belonged to Argent Tech Industries.

It really was him who was behind Scott’s death, and his stolen microbots. Liam’s hands trembled, his jaw clenched as anger flared up in his stomach again now even more real than the first time. He tried to take a deep breath, like Theo taught him, like Theo said he should, but it wasn’t working. The anger, making his vision red, was still there.

‘My God,’ Mason whispered next to him, his voice getting through to Liam belatedly. ‘You were right, it really is Argent.’

Liam blinked at the name, tuning back into reality and holding onto the rails so tightly that his knuckles were white, but he looked up in surprise when someone took both of his hands in his and squeezed softly. Theo.

‘Relax,’ he said calmly, his voice calm and steady. ‘Breathe.’

Liam did, thankfully, and Theo nodded to something above them. ‘Look.’

Liam followed his gaze, to where Theo was looking at, and a little above them there was another room that had good view of the one they were currently standing in, to keep an eye on things happening here, Liam guessed.

They walked up to the small stairs to the dark, abandoned room, which had a few computers standing to the right in front of the window that gave a view of the room below and the machine with the rings, and to the left, there was a big TV-screen.

Slowly, nervously, Liam reached out and tapped on the screen, which turned on again immediately and showed a paused video, as if it had never been really shut off.

It was a video of Chris Argent, in the very room that they had just found themselves in, standing in front of the rings that were not broken and still working right then, with a look on his face that was prouder than Liam had ever seen anyone, and standing with him was a small group of people that Argent was showing his machine to.

‘Gentlemen,’ he said proudly. ‘I present to you: project Silent Sparrow!’

Liam frowned, not understanding what he was seeing, but just like the others, he stayed silent and watched.

‘May I?’ Argent asked, holding out his hand for the hat of the gentlemen, and didn’t hesitate to throw it into the ring then, which seemed to contain a powerful field of energy that Liam didn’t know what it was for. He watched, as the hat flew out of the second ring, caught by another employee, who immediately threw it back again and sent it back to Argent.

‘Wow…’ Alec whispered in awe. ‘Teleportation,’ the group said quietly in admiration and surprise that that was even possible, just as Argent said the same thing.

‘It’s not science fiction anymore,’ Argent said proudly as he lead the small group upstairs to the computer room that they were standing in now, which Liam guessed now was some sort of control room.

‘But we didn’t come here to teleport hats,’ Argent explained, turning back to the window, before asking a question in a little microphone with which Liam guessed he had contact with the girl sitting in the transportation machine still in the room below stairs. ‘Ready to go for a ride, Malia?’

‘You bet,’ the dark-blonde haired girl responded with a grin. ‘Why teleport hats when you could be teleporting me?’

Argent nodded, giving the sign for the girl named Malia to go and watched as her cart slid over the rails leading to the first ring before his attention was drawn by one of the guys in front of the computers. ‘Sir?’ he asked, an obvious concerned look on his face. ‘We’ve picked up a slight irregularity in the magnetic containment field.’

‘Mr. Argent?’ one of the guys Argent had brought with him asked. ‘Is there a problem?’

Argent frowned for a second, before making a quick decision and straightening his back. ‘No,’ he said confidently, though Liam swallowed nervously, thinking that that was exactly the recipe for disaster. ‘No problem. Let’s move forward.’

The guy at the computer nodded and Malia secured her helmet, before her cart flew over the rails towards the ring, and straight into it.

Except she didn’t come out of the second ring anymore.

Liam flinched, startled, when an alarm sounded in the control room and the guy at the computer shouted: ‘Abort! We’ve lost contact with the cart!’

Liam watched, his mouth dry and a sour taste in his mouth as the panic started in the control room, and he jumped when the second ring started to shake, uncontrollably and dangerously. No one could stop the sudden flames shooting out of it, before a loud bang had everyone jumping and the second ring still stood there, burnt, not working. Broken, just like the way it was now. Liam could hear Nolan gasping softly behind him.

‘Abort, the pilot is gone!’

Hurriedly, panicked, Argent pushed one of the guys at the computers aside and started banging on the keyboard, trying to fix things as the first portal ring seemed to overheat and started sucking in all kinds of things from the room, including parts of the rails that belonged to the machine itself.

‘Argent, shut it down!’ one of the gentlemen shouted angrily, and panicked, Argent slammed his fist down on a big button and typed in some things on the computer.

Liam watched as the first portal ring made a stuttering sound, and shut down after that. The machine went silent, and Liam’s mouth was dry. He could hear his own heart beat in the otherwise tense and silent room.

‘Wow…’ Mason breathed out first, recovering from the discovery they’d just made.

Alec leaned forward. ‘The… The government shut down Argent’s project,’ he mumbled tensely, as everyone started to understand what happened in the video a little better, before he looked at Liam. ‘That’s why he stole your microbots. He’s using them to steal his machine back.’

‘Don’t you think that that’s a little…’ Nolan started, but was quickly cut off by a panicked sounding Theo.

‘Guys, run!’

Liam flinched, looking over his shoulder only to be met by the guy in the mask standing in the room in front of the rings on top of the microbots again, and his breath caught in his throat, his eyes wide and frozen with fear as the man used the help of the microbots to lift up a giant piece of cement that broke off, and flung it in their direction. Hard.

Screaming, they dove out of the way, just barely in time to avoid being hit and killed, and Liam coughed from the dust that the cement had left behind, his ears buzzing a little from the loud bang it had given.

‘What do we do now!?’ Corey screamed, his panic clear in his voice and his complete and utter fear visible on his face.

‘We do what we came here to do!’ Alec yelled back, standing up and finding his balance on his skates. ‘We get your microbots back. I’m going in!’

‘No!’ Nolan yelled, reaching out his hand and grabbing for Alec’s suit, but the boy was already gone before he could take it, and stop him.

Liam’s mouth felt dry, his heart stuck in his throat in fear as he watched Alec race towards the masked man, frozen in fear for a moment before reality caught up with him and he jumped up, ready to go after him.

‘Liam!’ Theo shouted, taking his hand before he could. ‘I’m not letting you go alone! We do this together, remember, that’s what our suits are made for!’

Liam bit his lip, his heart warming at the realization that Theo wouldn’t let him down, that even now he did his best to protect him and be there for him, before he stood up with Theo following close behind him.

Mason, Corey and Nolan jumped up too then, letting Liam and Theo go first before they went after them, still able to watch their backs if necessary and not letting Alec go in alone either.

‘Go for the transmitter!’ Liam screamed at last second before they all dove into action and his comment would go unheard. ‘Try to take his mask!’

Mason and the others gave a short nod to show that they understood, before they caught up with Alec, who was circling around the man and trying to dodge all the attacks with the microbots that he threw at him.

Sometimes he managed to cut off some of the microbots from the rest that they were still attached to, making the magnets stop working for a few seconds with his own magnetic blades he had as arm gear, but it never lasted long. It would only be a few moments before the magnetic microbots found their way back to each other, and the attack was strong.

It was clear that he needed help.

Nolan hid behind a pillar, waiting for the right moment, and typed in some formula on the little buttons on the small bag attached to his belt, making a little chemic ball fall out. When he thought it was safe to go for him and the masked man was paying no attention, he threw the ball at him, trying to catch him in a surprise attack.

He missed.

The ball fell on the ground, splashing apart just as Alec skated in his direction over the remains of the ball, and lost his balance over how slippery it was. Liam groaned internally, but a new wave of hope returned when he caught Mason out of the corner of his eye.

‘Hey!’ he screamed. ‘Watch this!’

With that, he jumped forward, using his laser-gloves to cut through the microbots and try and get to the man’s mask, all while the man suddenly started to shake his shoulders. It didn’t take him long to throw a groaning Corey to the ground, all visible again, after he had tried to jump on the man’s back and take the mask from behind. Mason swallowed, but gave another swing with his glove when the man beat him too it, and locked Mason’s feet in a pile of microbots, making him frozen and unable to move.

With just a simple swing of his hand, the man moved the microbots to the side, taking Mason with them as he lost his balance and fell on the ground. He didn’t take into account that Alec had just gotten up on his feet again, skating towards them, when Mason crashed into him and took them both to the ground, groaning. They slid over the slippery pool of what had once been Nolan’s chemic ball, hitting Corey and Nolan in their legs and taking them with them as all four of them fell over each other, lying on the ground.

Liam groaned, frustrated with them for messing up so royally and being in each other’s ways like that, before Theo lifted them from the ground quietly and Liam’s attention was caught by the man.

He got ready to strike, making his microbots form a giant fist and was about to let it fall down on the small group, when the rumbling engine of Theo’s flying suit startled him and directed his attack towards him and Liam instead.

Big, spiky towers of microbots were thrown in their direction, to try and make them fall down, but Theo seemed to all dodge them almost effortlessly. Liam would have applauded him for it, had he not been stuck magnetically to the back of Theo’s suit to not fall down.

Then, almost like anything really, they failed. A great tower of microbots crashed into Theo’s stomach, forcing a loud gasp out of him from the blow as he got fired backwards, and before Liam knew what was happening, he was thrown off of Theo’s back and fell down fast, his breath caught in his throat terrified as he saw that fell straight towards the masked man, right on top of him.

Painfully, with a few loud thumps, they bounced off, falling after one another down the little staircase and Liam gasped, landing a few feet away from Theo, who was still laying still on the ground, unmoving.

Liam swallowed, started to crawl towards him to see if he was okay and would please, please, say something, panic starting to rise in his throat in the form of a bitter taste, when a sound like rain made him look up.

The microbots were all falling down around them, uselessly and uncontrolled, and Liam swallowed, looking up with a soft groan.

There, only a few feet away from him, lay the mask, on the ground and perfectly in reach for him. He narrowed his eyes, squinting, but then reality caught up with him and he coughed, his arms hurting painfully as he pushed himself up on his elbows.

_The mask. On the ground. That meant it was no longer on the man’s face._

Liam’s head snapped up audibly, with a soft sound he flinched at when he heard it. Quickly, he snatched the mask off the ground, pulling it towards him, and stood up with a cough before looking over.

When he did, he was met with a sight that he did not expect. Because there, in front of him, was not, in fact, standing Argent. It was professor Hale.

Liam felt his blood run cold at the sight, his mouth dry as it dropped open, his chest heavy as it was hard to breathe, and he barely even noticed his fingers opening and the mask falling to the ground with a thud.

‘P-Professor Hale?’ he stuttered with a lump forming in his throat as he was met with Peter Hale’s cold eyes staring straight back into his. It couldn’t be professor Hale, it just couldn’t, right? He thought as panic started to wash over him. He was… Everyone thought he was… ‘But, the fire,’ he stuttered, his throat closing up as he tried to breathe. ‘You’re… You died,’ he muttered, trying to make sense of the situation he could just not understand and his head was too slow to think about properly.

‘No,’ Peter growled. ‘I had the microbots, all around me to shield me from the fire.’

Liam’s breath hitched, he stumbled back, as he was hit with the realization that Peter’s explanation made perfect sense, that was why he was still alive. He stole the transmitter during the showcase, along with his microbots, and started the fire. Not Argent. Peter. Argent had done nothing wrong.

Liam gasped at the realization, swallowed, before the familiar flame of beginning anger started to burn in his stomach, under his skin. The realization that Argent was okay left him burning with guilt, shame for ever suspecting the guy, though there was barely any room in his head left for the thought when another one seemed to be so much more important.

‘But… Scott,’ he swallowed, the thought of what happened leaving a bitter taste in his mouth and another wave of anger hit him, crashed around, as he finally understood the full weight of what happened.

His head snapped up, his jaw clenched with a kind of anger he’d never felt before, burning hot in his stomach, and his hands squeezed into fists so tightly that his knuckled turned white painfully.

‘He went in there to save you!’ he shouted at Peter’s face, not flinching back when Peter took a step towards him with an even more cold look on his face.

‘That was his mistake!’ he snarled.

And that was when Liam couldn’t hold it back anymore, his anger burning under his skin, exploding in his stomach and leaving his vision red and almost blurry, and he looked towards Theo, who had finally stood up behind Peter.

‘Theo…’ he growled through gritted teeth, his voice low and threating, dangerous, as he looked towards the powerful arm gear that Theo had that could almost punch through a brick wall. ‘Use them.’

Theo’s eyes widened, the dark look in them upon finding out that it was actually Peter under the mask disappearing slightly, being replaced with shock upon hearing the suggestion. ‘Liam… No.’

Liam’s eyes turned dark at that, stepping towards Theo. ‘I said…’ he growled. ‘Use them!’

With that, he climbed back on Theo’s back, pressing the little button on the side of Theo’s suit that was there for him in case he’d ever need it too, and the little engine rumbled to life.

Immediately, Theo lifted a little bit of the ground and Liam grabbed his arm, taking control over the arm gear, and steered them towards Peter.

‘Liam, stop!’ Theo screamed, anger at his actions clear in his voice as he fought to get the control back over his suit, that turned their flight a bit wobbly, unsteady.

Liam kept his eye on Peter, determined to get to him no matter how hard he had to try. This was the guy who killed Scott, his best friend, his _brother_ , faked his own death and didn’t even give a shit that Scott had died. He deserved everything that came onto him.

‘Liam, stop!’ Mason yelled, getting in their way to try and block their path, but Liam used Theo’s power to throw him aside. He didn’t hesitate to do the same with the rest of them, growling when they didn’t give up, and kept coming back. ‘Stop!’ he yelled. ‘Get out of my way, he’s getting away!’

He flinched as Peter grabbed the mask back off the ground, putting it back on and regaining control over the microbots, that weren’t even his.

‘Stop!’ Alec yelled before Liam pulled back, and Alec was flung against the wall with a groan. A heavy weight suddenly dropped on Liam’s back then, pulling at him, but he had no idea shaking him off and grimaced when Corey turned visible again upon hitting the ground with a thud.

Liam focused his gaze back on Peter then, who was already using his power again to turn the microbots into a tower that he could escape the room with, but it wasn’t long before another weight dropped on Liam’s shoulders, one that couldn’t be shaken off so easily this time.

‘Liam, stop!’ Mason yelled close to his ear, pulling at him until he managed to pull him off and they both fell to the ground with a soft groan. Theo landed a few feet away from them, a dark and pissed off look in his eyes that Liam hadn’t seen there before. It was nothing like the soft expression with which Theo usually looked at him, and suddenly became so clear to Liam.

He was suddenly hit with a wave of shame, in the middle of all his burning anger.

‘What the hell was that!?’ Corey exclaimed then, standing up and appearing just as mad as the others.

‘What had to be done!’ Liam yelled back, his fists clenched at his sides. ‘And you let him get away!’

‘Oh yeah, that’s great, blame us!’ Alec snarled, sitting on the ground and clutching a sore ankle. ‘We’re not the ones who went full on Hulk on him!’

‘Well, maybe if you had, he wouldn’t be gone now!’ Liam shouted, his anger returning, burning under his skin and begging for release.

‘Yeah, well, we said we’d find this guy, not this!’ Nolan yelled.

‘Okay, can we all just, stop, shouting!?’ Mason screamed them, raising his voice to be heard over all of them shouting over each other, before it fell silent almost immediately after they heard how intimidating he sounded.

Theo turned towards them, a sorrowful look in his eyes underneath the anger that was still there, directed towards Liam that left a painful sting in his heart. ‘I am sorry guys,’ he said quietly, flatly, while he reached out to Alec and let him lean on him until Alec’s ankle was well enough again for him to stand on it himself. ‘I never meant this.’

Mason nodded shortly, turning towards Liam. ‘Liam, what you just did… That’s exactly what I said we wouldn’t do, at the beginning of this.’

His voice was calm, not in any way accusatory, but Liam couldn’t help but take it to heart any way. He looked down, feeling a bit ashamed like a kid who got sent to the principal’s office, underneath the anger that was still right there in his stomach.

‘We said we’d catch the guy, and not make any rash decisions out of anger,’ Mason continued calmly, as he knew that more fighting wouldn’t help this situation.

Liam couldn’t help but be irritated by it. ‘I never should’ve let you help me!’ he said loudly, even though he knew, deep down, he didn’t mean it. He never would’ve come this far without their help, he just needed to lash out. He turned towards Theo. ‘Find the microbots,’ he ordered flatly.

Theo tilted his head, raising his chin. ‘No.’

‘No?’ Liam asked lowly, his eyebrows raised.

‘My scanner is damaged, I need to repair it first,’ Theo responded flatly, a hurt feeling hitting Liam in the chest as he realized _that he’d done tha_ t. He stayed silent for a moment before continuing. ‘Look,’ he sighed, a hint of disappointment on his face and his voice sounding a little hurt, as he stepped forward. ‘This wasn’t part of our plan. We were supposed to do this as a team, weren’t we? We’re supposed to be a team.’

Liam detected a slightly hopeful undertone in his voice and a sharp feeling stung in his chest, but he shrugged, giving up as some of the anger flowed away while the rest stayed behind. ‘Whatever, let’s just go home,’ he mumbled, turning around. ‘He’s gone anyway, we need to find him again, and then you can fix your scanner.’

Theo let out a sigh at that, and Liam shuffled back towards the door through which they through the corridors, in which Mason had cut a circle. The others followed after him silently, their eyes pricking in Liam’s back as he was sure they exchanged looks with each other about him in silent discussion. He paid no attention to it, a numb, dull feeling having washed over it as he went back into the direction from which they came automatically, not registering anything. Together, they went back to the city.

*****

The car ride back was awkward, to say the least. During the whole drive, there hung an tense silence in the car that no one dared to say anything, and Liam stared out of the window.

They dropped Mason and Corey off first, driving to Alec’s and Nolan’s houses after that, before they made their way to Liam’s house and Theo pulled over at the side of the road. Staring straight ahead, looking at the road before them and avoiding Liam’s gaze.

Liam’s mouth felt heavy, his throat closing up and making it hard to swallow as the actions he’d done hung heavy above their heads and he finally realized the full weight of them. ‘Theo…’

‘I’ll walk you to your door,’ Theo interrupted him quietly, his voice sounding hoarse.

Liam swallowed, his heart hurting at that, but he nodded silently, his mouth dry, and opened the car door to get out. Some fresh air would do him good.

Theo walked beside him over the path leading to his front door, walking up the few steps next to him, and in front of the door, Liam paused. He turned towards Theo. ‘Theo, I’m sorry…’ he started.

‘You used me,’ Theo interrupted him, though the hurt was clear in his voice. Liam swallowed. ‘You used me today to get back at Peter. And… That hurt.’

‘I’m sorry,’ Liam whispered, tears starting to burn in his eyes. ‘I should never have done that.’

Theo stayed silent for a moment, sighing, before he continued and his eyes met Liam’s. ‘You kissed me,’ he said, quieter, and making Liam’s heart skip a beat at the memory. ‘You kissed me today, and made me think that that was something you wanted.’ He looked up. ‘I really want to do this with you, Liam,’ he said then, his voice so full of raw honesty and openness that only Scott had ever used with him, and made Liam’s chest ache. ‘I really want to explore this with you, and help you with Peter and the microbots. But I feel like we need to do this as a team, with clear rules and no rash violence, like Mason said at the beginning. That won’t solve anything.’

‘I… I know,’ Liam swallowed. ‘But I just got so angry, and… I’m sorry.’

‘I know,’ Theo said, closing his eyes for a moment and taking in a small breath. ‘But you still used me today, and that hurt. After…’

 _After kissing him first_ , Liam thought. He could clearly see how those signals came across, now.

‘I think… Just, think about what you want,’ Theo said quietly. ‘Then we can talk. Because like I said, I really want to do this with you, but I want to have things clear, and… Not like this.’

Liam nodded, his eyes stinging with tears that he blinked desperately to keep them in. Theo nodded, turning half away from him. ‘I’ll answer the phone,’ he said softly. ‘I’ll be ready when you are.’

Then he turned around completely, walking off the porch and down the steps, and walking away, back to his car. Liam watched after, tears stinging in his eyes, more now, and making his vision blurry. He watched as Theo drove off, still standing on the porch as the first of the tears rolled down his cheeks, as he realized what he had ruined by letting his anger get the best of him, and how he felt that he may have lost the only good thing that came out of this whole situation of losing Scott.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hoped you liked it! :) Tell me what you think!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the longest one yet... Even longer than the previous one. Definitely a lot happens here. There was actually supposed to be one more chapter, but it got wrapped nicely like this, sooo... I hope so anyway.  
> Enjoy! :)

# ‘I fucked up, Scott.’

Liam mumbled, his voice coming out like a quiet whisper, with tears pooling in his eyes as he had one hand flat on the cement gravestone before him, and a single flower in the other. ‘I fucked up,’ he said again, feeling kind of silly talking to a headstone, but at the same really, desperately, painfully wishing Scott was actually here to talk to right now. He was always so calm, always had the right things to say and the answers for fucking everything, and Liam really needed that right now.

He missed Scott so much he felt like his heart was breaking in two at looking at the name written across the stone, his tears falling down his face so fast that there was no point in even trying to stop them.

‘You see, there’s this… This small group of friends of yours, who have all been so kind to me,’ Liam exhaled shakily as he thought over his next words. ‘And there’s this boy you know that I like, really like, Theo, but I fucked up, because… Your old professor Peter Hale, the one you trusted…’ Liam sniffled, forcing to just get the name past his lips, leaving a sour taste like poison on his tongue and his anger flaring up in his stomach again, as he relayed the story of what happened at the island to Scott.

‘He’s the one to blame for your death,’ Liam sobbed, holding onto Scott’s gravestone for support, as the tears blurred his vision and were hot on his cheeks, and he knew that Scott would never say that with so many words, even as he did feel betrayed. Because that was just who was Scott was, he was kind like that.

‘I miss you,’ Liam muttered, wiping at his eyes with his gaze still on Scott’s grave. ‘I don’t know how I’m supposed to do this without you. Please, just tell me what to do.’ Where was Scott’s advice when he needed it the most, his calm words when he needed them?

There was no answer, and Liam felt the desperate urge to kick something to get the rising frustration in his chest out when it stayed silent, and Scott didn’t let Liam hear from him. But the only thing there was Scott’s grave, and Liam would rather die than do that.

So he stayed still, sinking down until he sat down next to Scott’s grave shivering, hugging his knees to his chest as he didn’t even take his gaze off of it for a single moment. Hey stayed there, with the wind blowing around him and didn’t even notice it, sitting there as the tears slipping from his eyes slowly blurred his vision, his eyes burned, and he had to blink them away. And only when it turned dark, did he notice how much time had passed and he got up, saying goodbye to Scott with his hand on the gravestone, and walked away.

*****

‘Hey buddy,’ Liam mumbled as a soft sigh escaped his lips and he turned on the light, stepping inside the little room where he had first met Theo a few weeks ago. ‘Baymax.’

He sunk down in Theo’s chair at his desk, too aware of Scott’s empty one across from him, and looked down at the little red case that still had Baymax inside of it.

Scott had never even had a chance to finish it.

With a sigh, Liam looked around the room. It was strange, seeing it like this, so dark without either Scott or Theo working in here. He stood up, narrowing his eyes at something he saw on a shelf above Scott’s desk.

It was a picture of them, together, when Scott had taken him to a baseball game years ago, when they were both younger, if their wide grins with gaps between their teeth was anything to go by. Liam could imagine it was aunt Lisa behind the camera.

Liam smiled sadly, blinking back the tears stinging in his eyes, but when he turned he suddenly tripped over something, a groan escaping his lips as he gripped onto Theo’s desk to hold onto it for balance. ‘Shit! Ow!’

It was Baymax’ box. Liam rubbed his hurt elbow irritatedly, but upon hearing his distress, the box opened and Baymax came out, standing up, and Liam followed it’s movements with wide eyes until Baymax towered highly over him.

‘Hello,’ it said. ‘I am Baymax, your p…’ before it fell silent, shutting down with a soft buzzing sound, and shutting itself off.

Liam looked at it with his mouth open. He knew Scott had made a start on Baymax, he’d shown him, but he’d forgotten how far he’d actually come already. Baymax had been responsive to his pain, even if he couldn’t even finish his sentence, and surely that had to mean something. Liam would’ve loved to have seen the end result, the sad realization that he probably never would now hitting him then and making his chest sting.

‘Now, how do we put you back in your box?’ he sighed, stepping closer to Baymax and pressing down on its head, as if that would somehow be the magic answer. Baymax didn’t move and Liam racked his brain, trying to remember how Scott used to do it again as he pushed against Baymax, until Baymax suddenly fell backwards and Liam tripped forward, accidentally pushing down a few buttons on Baymax’ side.

A little screen on Baymax’ stomach switched on then, making Liam jump a little, but his jaw dropped when he saw that it was Scott’s face that he was staring right back at, as if had recorded a video, and Liam only saw it now.

‘Hey there,’ he said. ‘This is Scott McCall, and this is the first test of my robotics project. Baymax, number one.’

Liam’s heart skipped his beat, his stomach doing a flip at seeing his best friend’s face and hearing his voice again so suddenly, as it was the only thing he’d ever truly wanted since he died in the fire, and thought about it again just last night when he visited his grave.

And now here it was again, in the simple form of a video that Liam could keep after this and watch back again every time he missed his best friend. It was the closest thing he could get to feeling like Scott was still there, and Liam knew for sure, that he would take it. It wasn’t real, it wasn’t really Scott, but it was the best thing he could get. And he would take it.

‘Hello, I am Baymax,’ Baymax’ voice coming from the video said then, before high-pitched sound took over and Scott flinched, covering his ears with his hands and taking a stumbling step backwards. ‘Stop, stop!’ he yelled, before turning it off and the video made a jump cut.

‘The seventh test of my robotics project,’ Scott’s voice sounded, as he looked up at Baymax excitedly. ‘Hello, I…’ Baymax’ voice sounded, before he suddenly cut off and reached out his arms, slapping Scott against his shoulders fast. The smile disappeared from Scott’s face, replaced with panic as he scrambled to turn Baymax off.

Liam kept watching, as it didn’t take long before Scott reappeared on the screen as he announced the thirty-third test, though Baymax had a short circuit and the room went dark before Scott could even finish his sentence. He turned on a flashlight, letting out a soft sigh as he studied Baymax and looked for what the problem could be.

‘I’m not giving up on you,’ he said, talking to Baymax, though Liam couldn’t help but feel like Scott was speaking directly to him, helping him with the exact problem he had, even when he wasn’t here anymore. Liam’s heart warmed a little at the thought.

‘You don’t understand this yet, but people need you,’ Scott’s voice continued. ‘So let’s get back to work.’

Liam’s eyes flickered down to his lap, he let out a soft sigh at Scott’s words that felt like they were directed right at him, instead of at Baymax. How was it, that they could relate to his situation so well right now? He thought about the people he’d let down, his friends, Mason, Corey, Nolan, Alec… _Theo…_ How could they need him, after what he did? They’d gotten into a fight, and Theo had made him very clear that he didn’t want to do things this way after all, so how could they? Or was there something that Liam wasn’t seeing perhaps?

Scott’s voice coming from the video then, made him look up again. ‘This is Scott McCall with the sixty-fourth test,’ his tired voice said, rubbing his neck as he didn’t even look into the camera. His positive side got the better of him again then though as he took a deep breath, ready to try and go again, as he looked up at Baymax and into the camera with a newly found look of determination on his face. ‘What do you say, Baymax?’ he asked, with the exact amount of patience and strength that Liam wished he had. Scott wasn’t giving up on either of them, on Baymax or Liam.

‘Hello, I am Baymax,’ Baymax said, before falling silent again and Scott let out a deep sigh.

Liam smiled sadly, as he wished with all his heart that this had worked out for Scott in that moment, he deserved that. Liam had never known anyone with the same kind of patience and strength and courage as Scott, with the same kind of belief and seeing the good in others, and he never gave up. He never would’ve done what Liam did, and now, Liam wished he was more like him. Scott was good, he never hurt anybody else, and when Liam thought back on what happened at the island now he was filled with shame. It was all for Scott that they went there anyway, but what would he say when he saw the way they’d handled things? They hadn’t lived up to his legacy, had paid no attention to what their _best friend_ would’ve wanted, and instead made a mess out of everything that Scott stood for.

Liam swallowed, hanging his head in shame. Scott would be so disappointed in him. Scott was good, he wanted to help people, and that was about the opposite from what Liam had done. But he wouldn’t do it anymore, he thought, he would do things differently now. He would do things right, and be good, just like Scott, and help people. But first he needed to make things right with his friends, admit that it was his fault because it was, and apologize, even as he had no idea how to start with that. It scared him to do, when he was so unsure about it, but he grabbed his phone out of his pocket and went to their group chat to reach out to them nervously after everything, wondering if they’d even want to talk to him. He let his fingers hover over the keyboard, desperately trying to figure out a message, as his anxious thoughts automatically dismissed everything he came up with, and didn’t even know if a plain text message would be enough to fix this.

It was then, though, that he saw a still unplayed video that no one had clicked on yet, seemingly still from their discoveries at the military base on the island, and with trembling hands, Liam clicked on the play-button and swallowed.

It was a video that had been recorded with Theo’s suit, he’d recorded the video from Argent showing his machine to the gentlemen from the government, possibly so they could check it back again later, and it seemed that Theo had never stopped recording. Liam’s heart warmed at the action, as it was another thing that the sweet boy had done for him, to ease his nerves, and his stomach fluttered, pushing the thought of what he’d done to repay him away.

Liam watched silently as the video continued, slowly skipping through what they’d already seen, until he got to a part that was unfamiliar and he hadn’t seen before. That he, or anyone else out of their group, apparently hadn’t either. Liam watched, quietly, as the video progressed, but he swallowed at what he saw then, and his eyes went wide at the sight of it.

*****

‘Theo!’ he shouted, ringing the doorbell and knocking on the door desperately, trying to get someone to open the door. ‘Theo, please, open up!’ he tried again, rattling at the doorknob hurriedly before knocking on the door again. It was important, he understood how he’d made Theo feel, but did he really have to choose now to ignore him, when Liam had something so important to tell him!? Didn’t he say he’d pick up the phone?

The door went open then, and Liam was met with a red-haired girl with eyes as clear green as Theo’s, she unmistakably had to be his sister, only hers had a considerably colder look in them then Theo had in his warm, friendly eyes.

‘Theo’s a little busy at the moment,’ she said, blocking the doorway and making sure it was impossible for Liam to peer inside.

‘I just need to talk to him,’ he said, pleading and breathlessly, as he had ran all the way here from college, and desperately brushed a hand through his messy hair, pushing it back. ‘Please, it’s important.’

‘I understand, but like I said, he’s a little busy,’ the girl repeated, only to be cut off by Theo’s heavier, deeper voice coming from the hallway that was like music to Liam’s ears and lifted a heavy weight off his shoulders, relief washing over him.

‘It’s okay, Tara,’ he said tiredly. ‘I can talk to Liam, thanks.’

The girl, named Tara, raised her eyebrows, shooting a worried look between him and Liam, before her gaze settled on her brother again. ‘Are you sure?’ she asked and Liam swallowed in guilt.

Theo nodded, mumbling a soft ‘yeah’ and Tara looked at him for a moment longer before she nodded and turned, walking out of the hallway and leaving them alone. Liam pressed his hands into fists nervously, the guilty feeling washing over him as he realized that Tara was only trying to protect Theo a little and looking out for him. Still, that didn’t mean he didn’t dislike her though, as she thought it was necessary to keep him away from Theo and judge him, and remind of the fact that maybe, that would be for the best.

‘Hey,’ Theo said quietly then, interrupting Liam’s thoughts before he looked back up at him, noticing that he still sounded tired, but at the same time as if he was putting in the effort. Liam swallowed, noticing the slight wall that was there between them now because of his mistake, leaving a slight sting in Liam’s chest, and he forced a smile. ‘I have to show you something.’

Theo stepped outside at that, pulling the door closed behind him, and he nodded, his arms folded. ‘What do you need, Li?’

Liam’s breath caught in his throat at that and he looked up, surprised at Theo’s kind tone and him being there for him, even now. He looked into Theo’s deep green eyes with the serious expression in them frozenly for a moment, before he cleared his throat and looked down again as he felt a blush growing on his cheeks, and pushed his phone with the video under Theo’s nose.

Theo had to take a step back to get a good look at it with a frown on his face, though Liam noticed the corner of his mouth turning up ever so slightly at his movement as well, but the frown deepened when Liam pressed play and started the video.

‘You recorded this back at the military base,’ Liam explained quietly, as he came to stand beside Theo to watch the video. ‘It’s the last part, the one we didn’t get to see,’ he said.

He was hyper aware of the presence of the other boy beside him, was unable to steal a few glances in his direction as they watched. Liam thought it was safe for him to look away, as he’d already seen the video once, and looked back at Theo, a blush creeping up on his cheeks as Theo continued to watch.

‘I know,’ Theo whispered then. ‘Just in case you… We’d need it again,’ he said, confirming Liam’s thoughts from earlier that Theo had been there for him again, his cheeks reddening as he pretended not to notice Theo’s slip-up. _Because Theo had just done it again_ , he thought, _he’d done this for him._

Theo’s head turned, his eyes finding Liam’s, and Liam’s eyes widened as he noticed how close his and Theo’s faces were in order to watch the video. Liam bit his lip and Theo leaned back, a little further away from him as Liam felt the atmosphere between them shift again, before Theo’s expression went serious again then, his eyes a little darker.

‘But Li, if this is real, then we have to show the others,’ Theo said and Liam nodded, his heart beating just a little faster at Theo’s slight use of a nickname for him.

‘Yeah,’ he said quietly, though he couldn’t deny that he was nervous to face the others again. He’d tried to type out a little text message earlier, when he found the video with the truth, but even then he couldn’t find out the right words, when he knew that a text message wasn’t the way to do it. Who was to say he could when they were all standing in front of him? ‘I know.’

‘Okay,’ Theo said, nodding, already starting halfway down the steps of his front porch. ‘Come on.’

Liam swallowed, standing still on the porch for one more moment before Theo looked over his shoulder worriedly. ‘Are you okay?’ he asked unsure.

 _Fine,_ Liam thought. Just nervous and unsure as hell what he should say to admit to his mistakes and apologize for them. He couldn’t help but feel like there was still a slight wall between him and Theo, where Theo was tense and felt unable to be himself, and Liam wondered about how different Theo’s reaction to his moment on the porch would’ve been if he hadn’t made his mistake.

He didn’t want to think about it, not when he wouldn’t know anyway when there was tense thing between them that divided them, and he nodded. ‘Yeah, I’m fine,’ he lied, and Theo nodded shortly. ‘Are you coming then?’ he asked quietly, and Liam nodded, ignoring the slight sting in his chest. He made his way down the steps of the front porch and walked after Theo onto the street. Together, they walked down the street to their college, next to each other but not really with each other, as they both had their gaze directed down at the street and their hands in their pockets, and avoided awkward conversation with each other as they followed the street to their college. Still, Liam couldn’t help but shoot a few glances in Theo’s direction, at the way the sun seemed to cast a golden glow around him and made his hair light up. It was a pretty view, very pretty, and the guilty, sinking feeling in Liam’s stomach grew.

*****

‘There. There it is, do you see that?’

Liam clicked on the video, as Mason stood pressed close to him and peered at the computer screen with wide eyes as the rest pushed in to get a good look at it too. Liam tapped his foot on the ground nervously, as the video loaded and the group gathered behind him to watch the video playing on the screen. His attention was caught by Peter Hale’s voice coming from the video, sitting slumped against the back of his chair as he’d already seen it once, but straightened his back upon hearing the most important part, the part that really mattered.

‘Look there,’ he said quietly. ‘There it is.’

Peter Hale’s voice came from the video loud, the man running down the stairs fast after the teleportation machines had broken, and headed straight for Argent. ‘Argent!’ he screamed, making his way to Argent only to be stopped by the men from the government again immediately. ‘This is your fault, you knew it wasn’t ready! You sent her in anyway!’

He reached out his arm to Argent, his hand fisted as if he got ready to punch him, but he couldn’t get to him as the government representative held him.

Liam swallowed, watching as the video continued and he already knew what was coming, and heard Mason mumbling behind him: ‘Professor Hale… He was there?’

‘Hm,’ Liam nodded, turning towards him in his desk chair a little. ‘Now look at this.’

He stayed silent, fast forwarding the video to the next point that mattered with a quiet frown on his face, before he leaned back again. Just slightly, he turned his head and looked over his shoulder, to the group standing behind him, and wondered why they were all there, just watching the screen with narrowed eyes and focused on figuring out what was going on, and would just continue to do so even after what happened on the island without question, and without even bringing that up. Not that Liam minded, he was glad they were there, and very, very grateful.

The video caught his attention again then, right at the point that mattered the most. Liam turned back, straightening his back, and watched the video in concentration.

‘That’s… That’s professor Hale, with the pilot,’ Corey said slowly, quietly, behind him as he leaned forward just a little bit with narrowed eyes to get a better look. Liam nodded, as the rest of the group stepped a little closer too now that they’d caught on. They watched as Peter wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into a hug, before Corey narrowed his eyes and pointed at something on the screen, leaning forward. ‘What’s that? Can you zoom in a little?’ he asked, and Liam nodded, doing what he asked him and zooming in on where Corey pointed at the screen, on the side of Malia’s suit with the little word printed on the upper arm, even though it made the word a little more blurry and difficult to read, he could still manage it easily as he already knew what it said. It was the truth, the one thing that held the answer to all of his and indicated something none of them could have predicted, a truth none of them would have been able to know and yet gave them all the understanding they’d need, make it all as clear as day for them.

The word ‘Hale’ printed right there on her suit, on the upper arm of Malia’s suit, as the last piece of the puzzle they still needed to put it all together.

‘Malia… The pilot, was Peter’s daughter,’ Mason mumbled quietly, looking down upon knowing the new information.

‘Yeah,’ Liam said. ‘She was his daughter,’ he said, turning around in his chair and facing the group behind him that he was still so nervous to do.

‘Wow…’ Nolan mumbled, and Alec bit his lip. ‘And… This was all recorded with Theo’s suit?’ he asked softly.

Liam nodded as he looked towards Theo and caught his eye from where he was standing all the way at the back of the group, making him blush. ‘Yeah,’ Liam said quietly, hoping he could make clear to Theo just how grateful he was, that he could let him know with just the expression on his face. It felt like the most important thing in the world. ‘Peter blames Argent,’ he said.

‘So… He wants to get revenge?’ Nolan asked a bit unsure, to sum it all up clearly, and Liam nodded. ‘Yeah. Malia was the pilot in Argent’s experiment, and now she’s gone. Peter does not want Argent to get away with it.’

It stayed silent for a moment and Liam swallowed, standing up after having turned the computer off. ‘Guys, I…’ he started nervously, looking down and squeezing his hands together, ready to apologize and make it right for real this time, despite the guilty lump in his throat, but stiffened in surprise when Mason suddenly curled his arms around him and pulled him into a hug. Liam stayed still, not knowing how to respond to the unexpected movement, but allowed himself to relax.

‘We’re going to catch Peter,’ Mason said, stepping backwards and looking at Liam with a serious expression on his face. ‘And this time, we’ll do it right.’

Liam swallowed, tears stinging in his eyes from how touched he was by Mason’s promise to be there for him. ‘We don’t even know what he’s planning,’ he said. ‘Or how he wants to get revenge on Argent.’

‘It doesn’t matter,’ Mason said with a small smile, turning towards the rest of the group. ‘Scott McCall was our best friend, we can do this. We can catch this guy, together, as a team, without the amateur clumsiness from last time. Because Scott deserves that. I’m in.’

Liam’s heart warmed at that, the warm feeling spreading in his chest at Mason standing up for him and talking about Scott that way, and he couldn’t deny that something felt different from the last time. It felt like they were a team, working together and could cooperate together easily, like a well-oiled machine and could almost reach each other’s thoughts at times. It felt different this time and they would do things differently too, better.

‘And no violence,’ Liam mumbled shyly then, coughing and fumbling with the hem of his shirt as he looked down nervously. ‘It’s what Scott would’ve wanted, he lived to help people, and it’s time we’d live up to that,’ he said, his heart beating fast.

‘No violence,’ Corey repeated with a small smile on his face, as he recognized Liam’s silent apology. ‘I’m in too.’

‘Me too,’ Alec nodded, giving Liam a smile before nudging Nolan in his side. ‘Me too,’ he repeated hastily, but sincerely.

Liam smiled, the gratefulness coursing through him at the group’s promise to be there for him, to help him and be by his side, his smile growing wider as he watched them turn and leave, walking to the door with excited sounding voices. Liam looked up then, surprised when he still found Theo standing there with a serious look on his face, and his nerves returned full force when he realized that Theo hadn’t agreed to all of this yet, his smile falling from his face and his gaze directed down at the ground.

‘Are we… Are we good?’ he asked shakily, his hands trembling as he played with the hem of his shirt as the question encompassed all the apologies in the world that he didn’t quite know how to say. He thought that only now, he realized just how much Theo’s answer meant to him. His heart raced as he waited, wondering if he even really wanted to know just how big the chance was that his answer would be a negative one.

It stayed silent for a moment, but then Theo let out a soft laugh and the corner of his mouth turned up ever so slightly, and Liam’s stomach dropped with relief, the weight falling off of his shoulders in a moment.

‘Of course we are, buddy,’ Theo smiled, wrapping his arms around Liam’s shoulders and leading him out of the classroom. ‘Of course we are.’

Liam smiled widely, before looking up with a more serious expression on his face. ‘Theo, I’m really sorry…’ he started, still feeling the need to apologize and make things right, as the guilt of messing things up with this one special boy pressed heavily on his chest. ‘I should never have done that,’ he managed, and Theo smiled in appreciation.

‘I know,’ he said. ‘And what did I just say? It’s okay, I understand that it was painful,’ he said with a soft laugh, and the smile returned to Liam’s face fully, relief coursing through him because of course Theo would understand, that was just the kind of person he was, and his heart raced with affection for the other boy and how unbelievably kind he was.

Together, they walked out of the classroom then, into the hallway where the others were still waiting for them with their backs leaned against the wall. They straightened their backs when they saw Liam and Theo stepping into the hallway.

‘Good?’ Mason asked, which Liam understood meant whether they’d made up and were friends again, or even a little more already, and he smiled when Theo did.

‘Good,’ Theo confirmed softly, looking towards Liam with a small smile, and Liam’s smile widened, his heart racing in his chest as he realized Theo might mean a little more, even if neither of them was brave enough yet to speak out about this unnamed thing between them, that they both knew was there.

Mason’s smile grew a little wider at the answer and he nodded, before crossing his arms and looking around the group a little more impatient. ‘Okay,’ he said. ‘Then what are we waiting for?’

It was no mystery to them what he was talking about, and Mason’s question brought back some of their spirit, some of their will to catch Peter and stop his revenge on Argent, and the determination to fight for a good cause, to fight for Scott’s cause, returned to them. It warmed Liam’s heart to see, how much Scott had touched all of his friends’ lives and meant to them, and for the first time he didn’t miss Scott to the point where it physically hurt, because he felt like Scott was right there with them. And there was never a more reassuring thought, as Liam knew that everything was falling back together, with his friends, and with Theo.

‘For nothing,’ Theo said, looking around the group. ‘I’ve repaired my scanner,’ he said determinedly, making Liam’s head snap up and look back at him with his jaw dropped in awe at what Theo had done now, as he had not expected something like that.

‘We can use it to track down the microbots, and find him like that,’ Theo explained in a serious tone, looking towards Liam while he did, as if he somehow wanted to be absolutely sure that Liam had heard him. Liam nodded in response, his heart skipping a beat at the explanation and the still soft look in Theo’s eyes. His heart warm with the thought that Theo had done this for him.

The rest of the group looked towards him then.

‘You ready?’ Corey asked, and Liam nodded shortly, realizing with a shock that they accepted him as their leader now, as the one who knew what needed to be done, and he was more than determined to not let them down. Not again. He pressed his protective helmet from his suit closer to his chest to prove it.

‘Ready,’ he said determinedly, as he was sure he’d never been as ready for something as this in his life, and felt like he could take on everything that life threw at him as long as he had his friends right there to catch him. He’d never been so sure of anything in his life.

‘Okay,’ Theo said, smiling at him with his eyes sparkling, and making Liam feel like he was lifted off the ground, reminding him of the fact that he was not alone, _again._ ‘Then here we go.’

And the rest of the group nodded, putting on their protective headgear by the rest of their fighting suits and marched out of the hallway in search of Peter, like a small army with Scott’s idea to help people in the back of their minds, and ready to do what was right for the people.

*****

It didn’t take them long to find Peter. Not when they had the renewed scanner built in Theo’s suit to rely on.

When they arrived to where they needed to be, they quickly realized that there was some sort of party or gathering going on, and it was Argent who was standing at the front, speaking to the large group of people.

Liam knew what it was. It was the opening of Argent Tech Industries’ brand new, expensive, high-tech campus, which was something Argent had been working on for a long time now according to the news.

Liam swallowed as they watched the opening from a distance, a bitter taste in his mouth as he could almost guess what was gonna happen here already, and he had a bad feeling about it.

‘This beautiful new campus, is the result of a lifelong dream, that came to be despite a few minor setbacks,’ Argent’s voice sounded, as they were able to hear it from where they were standing in the shadows, unseen by the large group at the opening.

‘How do we even know something’s even gonna happen here?’ Theo whispered to Liam as Argent continued with his speech. ‘It’s all just quiet.’

‘Maybe Peter will still…’ Liam started to reply, before he was cut off by Corey shaking his arm who urged him to look towards the new campus, and the sound of people who had started to cry out in fear at the sight of a man in a mask on top of one of the buildings, who had his microbots ready with him already. ‘Liam, look!’ he hissed.

Liam’s eyes widened, as he spotted Peter on top of the building with the microbots sliding down the side of it like a thousand little spiders, and a woman’s voice cried out: ‘What is that!?’

Argent stared upwards, at where Peter was standing, frozen, and with his eyes widened in fear.

‘Setbacks!?’ Peter’s voice roared as he stepped from one tower of microbots to the next, just like he had done when he chased Liam and Theo out of the abandoned storage building. Argent’s hands trembled and he dropped his microphone, ready to start running, but Peter’s microbots grabbed him and held him before he could. ‘Was my daughter a setback!?’ his loud voice sounded then.

Liam froze, his stomach sunk and his jaw dropped as he could already tell that this was going horribly wrong. Peter was creating panic for everyone there, drawing all the attention to himself from everyone in the city, and they had to do something.

‘We’re going in,’ he whispered to the rest of the group, and they nodded determinedly, signing that they were right behind him to watch his back, and ready to put a stop to this.

‘This way,’ Nolan said quietly, gesturing to a path to the right. ‘No one will see us here,’ he said, and for the first time, Liam was thankful for Nolan’s overexaggerated caution.

They started down the path, all ready to free Argent from Peter’s microbots and stop the situation before it could escalate, when Theo tugged at Liam’s shoulder and stared upward with wide, shocked eyes. ‘Guys…’ he started, sounding a little scared. ‘Look.’

They followed his gaze, staring up, to where Peter still held Argent tightly, his mask half off, and his microbots seemed to be having a different plan as they were still controlled by Peter, and came up from four different sides, gathering closely around the two men. They seemed all four to be holding some sort of electronical parts, like parts of a machine, and it wasn’t until they all clicked together and formed a ring right above campus, turned on with the same kind of field of energy they’d already seen once, that the realization of what it was dawned on Liam.

It was Argent’s teleportation machine. Or, rather, one half of it.

The knowledge of what that meant seemed to settle upon their little group immediately, the panicked looks on their faces clear as they realized what Peter was doing, just as Argent realized it too and looked equally as panicked as them.

It was then that the first of the bricks of the highest building on campus, slowly started getting sucked towards the machine, and into it. ‘You took everything from me when you sent Malia into that machine, and you knew it was unsafe! Now watch, as I do the same with you!’

‘I don’t understand!’ Alec shouted panicked then, to get over the sound of the loud wind that the machine made as entire rooftops started to get sucked into it, effectively destroying the buildings on campus that Argent had worked so hard and spent so much money to build. ‘Peter… He was a good professor. He was! What happened!?’

Liam could feel his hands shaking, not really having processed the shock of what he was looking at yet, but he took a deep breath, knowing that they didn’t have much time and determined to do something. ‘Can we please discuss that later!?’ he shouted in response. ‘Right now, we have to go!’ he exclaimed, just as Argent’s voice sounded: ‘No, stop, you can’t!’ Pleading and begging Peter to put an end to what he was doing.

‘Liam, here!’ Theo screamed as he stood a little further away on the path already, his back turned to Liam, and Liam didn’t have to ask what he was talking about. Quickly, he ran towards him, clicking his own suit into the magnets on the back of Theo’s suit, and held on tight. Quietly, with his mouth close to Theo’s ear so that he would hear him clearly, he said: ‘I’m sorry. I won’t do anything, this is your suit now.’ Effectively getting rid of the last wall still standing between them when he had broken Theo’s trust in him and took over the control of the suit, giving him the full control over his suit back again and promising not to do it again, trusting Theo to do it right this time instead.

Theo smiled over his shoulder then, ‘Hold on tightly then, Li,’ he grinned as the last of the troubles that were pushing them apart fell away, and Theo lifted off the ground.

Again, Liam was amazed by the incredible experience of the flight, pressing himself close to Theo and holding on tight, even if there was a little more haste this time. When he looked down, he saw the other four running over the path that Nolan had gestured to earlier, unseen by Peter, and Liam knew for a fact that they would have each other’s backs. It made him feel absolutely and undeniably safe.

‘Professor Hale,’ he started, once they’d landed on one of the buildings close to where Peter and Argent were, and the other four had caught up with them too.

Peter’s head snapped to the side, a grim look on his face, and his eyes darkening even more as he saw who were there, waiting for him.

‘Let him go!’ Liam said with raised voice, nervous and still angry to be staring at the face of a man when he knew what he did, and hoped that he sounded as commanding as he thought he did.

Peter stayed silent, his eyes dark, and Liam’s gaze flickered to the buildings behind him, gesturing towards it. ‘Is this what Malia would’ve wanted?’ he asked, more quietly now, and something changed on Peter’s face before hardening again.

‘Malia is gone,’ he growled, and at that, Liam took a shaky breath and a stumbling step backwards. Because suddenly, he understood. Recognizing himself in that twisted, angry look on Peter’s face, as those words he said were so familiar to him.

‘This won’t change anything,’ he said calmly, thankfully feeling like the fear and the guilt, the sorrow and the same he held inside were nowhere to be seen on the outside. ‘Trust me, I know,’ he continued, turning his head just slightly to the group behind him, supporting him, so they knew that this was for them too. He was so angry when Scott died, he knew what it felt like to lose someone you cared about and was your family, and wanted to blame someone else for it, anyone. He’d done that with Peter on the island, all he thought about was getting back at him without thinking about the consequences and the other people he might lose because of that. But he didn’t want that, he wanted their support system and apologize for what he did, thankful for them getting to him before it was too late and he could do something he would seriously regret. Maybe it wasn’t too late for Peter either.

Liam let out a shaky breath, looking Peter in the eyes and seeing an ounce of consideration there, as if Liam was starting to get through to him. He opened his mouth, ready to continue and try to make Peter see that what he was doing made no sense if that meant they could avoid a big and unnecessary fight, when Argent spoke up behind him, interrupting Liam’s efforts.

‘Listen to him, Peter,’ he started. ‘Please. Let me go. I’ll… I’ll do whatever you want.’

Liam clenched his jaw, holding his breath, but it was no use. The consideration on Peter’s face was gone, his eyes dark again, and he looked over his shoulder and slipped his mask back on as he growled: ‘I want my daughter back!’ and Liam’s points of view forgotten again.

Liam cursed under his breath, if he could go back in time and make Argent shut up he would, as it really seemed like it was working there for a moment, but he guessed he would have to try a different method now. He didn’t have a lot of time to dwell on what went wrong now anyway. They had to do something.

Peter moved his hand to the side then, smashing his microbots towards Liam’s friends, and he heard Mason and Nolan scream and the others groan in pain as they were pushed to the side. Liam groaned, rubbing his elbow that he landed on pretty hard, but he was thankful to find that he was still attached magnetically to Theo’s back.

‘Liam! Are you alright!?’ Theo yelled over his shoulder, and Liam nodded frantically, looking around the group. ‘Instruction’s the same, go for the mask!’ he shouted, watching with relief as everyone nodded in understanding. ‘If he doesn’t have the mask, he won’t be able to control them!’

‘Got it, we got your back!’ Alec screamed before jumping to his feet, and Theo was resilient too, lifting up into the air to fly them towards Peter to try and grab the mask.

It wasn’t long though, before they were around halfway to Peter, when the microbots grabbed Theo’s feet from behind so that he couldn’t fly anymore, and Theo let out a startled scream. Before Liam knew what happened, the microbots had thrown him to the side, smashed him into one of the buildings so hard that he flew off Theo’s back and he landed on the floor with a loud thud, a painful groan spilling past his lips as Theo was nowhere to be seen.

Panic settled in Liam’s chest, as he hurriedly looked around for Theo but didn’t see him, and a hundred different, horrible scenario’s for what could’ve happened to Theo crossed his mind, his panic tight around his heart like an iron fist. ‘T-Theo!?’

Before Liam knew what happened then, though, he was sucked towards the ceiling with a strong power he’d never felt before, and faster than anything he could be able to stop.

The machine. He was getting sucked right towards, and Theo was nowhere to be found. Liam swallowed, trying to think straight as he grabbed onto every thing that he could see, as blind panic took over and his brain refused to cooperate. The roof burst open, towards the teleportation machine, and Liam was flung outside while holding onto only a little cable to make sure he didn’t get sucked in either, and get teleported to God knows where.

Fear coursed through him as he looked behind him and saw just how close to the machine he actually was, desperately trying to hold onto anything that would stop him from going in, but he couldn’t stop the slight stab of relief he felt in his chest when he saw Theo lying on the ground below him, just starting to move ever so slightly again. He was unconscious, but alive.

Liam looked down, sucking in a sharp breath as he only saw then what kind of trouble the others were in. A colorful bubble draw his attention, narrowing his eyes before he realized that it was one of Nolan’s chemical balls, and the boy himself was inside it to use it as a kind of shield. The sharp towers of microbots were stabbing at it though, hard, and it was only a matter of time before they went right through. Liam gasped, and saw that the others were having trouble with the microbots too. Corey was pinned up against a wall by his throat, making it hard for him to breath, and he gasped for air and flickered between visibility and invisibility as he scrambled to get free without any result. Mason seemed to be trapped between two pieces of a wall that broke off, held in place by the microbots pressing the pieces against him from both sides and not even leaving enough arm space for him to use his laser-gloves and turn them on. And Alec was completely surrounded by them, trapped in a little bubble what seemed to be made solely out of microbots with nowhere for him to go and absolutely no way to use his skates.

Liam swallowed, the panic forming a tight knot in his chest like he had never felt before, as he desperately looked between him and the teleportation machine above him as the wind rushed around his head, desperately forcing himself to come up with some kind of plan as his hands started to get sweaty and it got harder and harder to hold onto the cable. He couldn’t let them down, he knew, making his mouth dry with panic. Not again. But he didn’t have any ideas, he was running out, and right now all he wanted was to apologize to them desperately, for dragging them all into this mess with him. He was sorry, so unbelievably and undeniably sorry, and it was the only word that raced through his mind right then.

He looked towards the machine again, and that was when it him. A giant amount of relief coursed through him as a nervous giggle bubbled past his lips, his hands trembling and his muscles sore with how tight he was holding onto the cable. ‘Okay, guys, listen up,’ he spoke with a shaky voice into the little microphone that was built into his helmet, and could allow him to speak to the others as they were all connected to each other. ‘You can get out of this, if you use those big brains of yours. Think your way around the problem, look for another angle!’

He watched as the group listened to him, as the realization of what he meant got through to them and they all found a different way to get out of the sticky situation that they were in. Mason pressed his arms down to the ground, using his laser-gloves, and cutting a hole into the ground he could escape through before the pieces of the wall completely squeezed him together. Nolan popped out of his chemical bubble a moment later, having used a smaller one to stick himself to the microbots and hold onto them to pull him out of his bubble without getting impaled first. Corey managed to turn himself invisible again, despite the lack of oxygen of he was getting, and slid himself down the ground past the building until the microbots were holding onto nothing anymore, and he appeared again behind them this time. Alec managed to spin around inside his bubble of microbots, the friction from the blades from his roller skates making them hot, which made it easy for him to cut them open and jump free. And Theo groaned, rubbing his head painfully and making a slight stab of worry course through Liam, but he had no trouble standing up then and fighting his way around the microbots holding him in place.

A grin appeared on Liam’s face at seeing his friends all free, at the cool moves they did to get free, and he knew that he was the last one to do it, but he could. After believing in himself, and knowing that the rest did too. He could feel the pull at his legs growing stronger then though, as the machine grew more powerful and he got sucked towards it, the grin disappearing from his face as he wasn’t sure how much longer he could hold onto it anymore. His arm was so sore and he was tired, and he could feel himself slipping as the fear gripped tightly around his heart. ‘Theo,’ he managed weakly, pleading, as his eyes began to sting with tears. ‘Please.’

‘Liam!’ Theo screamed from where he was still standing on the ground, the others reaction to it and staring up at Liam with their mouths open, the desperation clear on their faces. Theo didn’t waste any time lifting off the ground, turning on his suit and flew towards Liam. Liam felt an incredible relief washing over him as he saw Theo coming towards him, a weight dropping off his shoulders, and he let go of the cable only when Theo was close enough, and he could click his suit against Theo’s one magnetically. He could hear his friends cheer below him in relief, and when and he and Theo landed next to them again, a new plan had formed in Liam’s head.

‘Guys!’ he shouted. ‘New plan, forget the mask! We focus on the microbots, if we can get them into the portal we have less to worry about!’

‘Yes! That, is a plan!’ Nolan shouted in response, grinning happily now that he finally had something real to hold onto.

‘Alec, Corey, can you watch our backs!?’ Liam called to his other side, to where his two friends were running with him.

‘Do you still even have to ask!?’ Alec shouted back at him with a wide grin, before they were off and Alec circled around Peter, Corey distracting him with his invisibility so that Liam and Theo could do what they had to do.

‘You know what we have to do, right!?’ Theo shouted over his shoulder. ‘It’s not gonna be easy!’

‘I know! But we got this, together!’ Liam responded loudly, a smile appearing on Theo’s face as Liam once again reassured him of the fact that he wouldn’t do what he did last time and run off on his own.

‘Okay!’ Theo said, before Peter spotted them and sent sharp towers of microbots in their direction. Theo managed to avoid them quite easily and flew closer to the portal machine, where Liam waited for the right moment before he screamed: ‘Dive!’

Theo did, crashing straight into the microbots and sent them breaking apart, all upwards towards the machine, where they got slowly sucked into it.

Down below them, Mason, Corey and Alec did their own best to cut through the microbots, sending them upward to the portal, and no matter how hard Peter fought back against them to keep the control over his microbots, he didn’t stand a chance against them. Nolan was off on his own somewhere, hurriedly doing the calculations he needed for his chemical balls and left the little bag that was usually clicked onto his belt behind, throwing one of the balls at it hard and jumped back to protect himself when it exploded and blew up the microbots, sending them towards the portal machine.

‘Now that’s a chemical reaction!’ he shouted excitedly, and Liam grinned down at him impressed, before he and Theo too, continued with sending microbots into the portal.

It was then though, that they got caught, Peter’s microbots wrapping around the middle of Theo’s suit by his hand, and with one last slam of his fist, he tried to send the two of them into the machine.

Liam couldn’t help but feel a slight stab of fear in his chest, despite knowing that they were fine and that nothing would happen, and when nothing did, a grin appeared on his face.

‘Looks like you’re out of microbots,’ he said simply.

Peter looked down in shock, realizing with dread that Liam was right, and when he looked back up, Liam asked: ‘Theo?’

‘You got it,’ he said, and broke free of the microbots still holding them in place with little effort. Together, they flew down towards Peter, crashing down on him with Theo’s right fist in the glove that belonged with his suit stretched out in front of them, and Peter flinched, as if they got ready to punch him.

They didn’t punch him.

Theo stopped, a little in front of Peter’s face, and as he looked back at them, Liam grinned proudly. ‘No violence,’ he said. ‘That is our rule, we don’t hurt other people,’ he said, and Theo looked over his shoulder at him with a small smile, spreading a warm feeling in Liam’s chest that only Theo could give him, he knew when he looked into those green eyes, and never wanted to be without.

‘Though we will take that,’ he continued and Theo grabbed Peter’s mask, revealing his grim face, and crushed it in his hand.

Immediately, the microbots started to collapse, including the ones that held the machine together, and they were all sucked towards it, Peter among them as well.

Liam watched, as the entire machine crashed down on top of the buildings on campus, the one they had tried so hard to save but couldn’t, and Liam swallowed as Theo dragged him with him to safety, the others joining them and running with them towards a safe shelter. There, they hid from all the ashes, the dirt in the air, and all the crumbled pieces of wood, metal and glass, and Theo threw Peter, who he had also dragged with him, on the ground, as Peter collapsed on the floor by Theo’s feet.

Liam looked up, to where Argent was standing in between Mason and Alec, before a rushing, blowing sound like the wind had him turning around.

The portal. It was still sucking things in.

‘It’s still on!’ he exclaimed, his voice loud to get over the sound of the machine, and he turned back to Argent. ‘How do we shut it off!?’

‘We can’t!’ Argent called back. ‘The containment field is failing! That portal is gonna fall apart on its own!’

‘Then we need to get out of here, now!’ Liam exclaimed, gesturing for Argent and the others to start running, kicking weakly against Peter’s ankle, signing for the coward to get up and do the same. He was about to start running too, when he suddenly noticed that Theo wasn’t behind him anymore.

He looked over his shoulder, to where Theo was still standing by the moving, shaking, buzzing portal machine, and the fear gripped around his heart again. ‘Theo!’

He took a few steps back again in his direction, despite knowing the danger of it, close enough for him and Theo to be able to hear each other. Theo looked over his shoulder at him. ‘Have you ever thought about it!?’ he asked loudly, his voice coming out over the sound of the machine.

‘What!?’ Liam screamed, as he had no clue of what the hell Theo was talking about. His hands itched to take Theo’s hand, link their fingers together and drag him with him, but Theo didn’t move.

‘Malia,’ Theo said quieter when Liam had gotten closer again, nodding towards the machine. ‘Whether she’s still in there.’

‘Theo…’ Liam started slowly, sadly. ‘That’s… That’s not possible.’ He swallowed, his heart beating nervously, and he reached out to Theo’s hand to at least try and comfort him a little bit, even though it wasn’t anywhere near the comfort Theo had given him more than once. He was touched by how much Theo wanted Malia to still be in there, to help her, but… ‘She’s gone. I’m sorry.’

‘How do you even know that?’ Theo asked quietly, turning towards Liam. ‘Where could she have gone? There’s nowhere, Li, she’s gotta be in there somewhere.’

Liam frowned, looking towards the machines, as Theo’s words made a little more sense that way, and he heard Peter mumble his daughter’s name hopefully behind their backs.

Liam swallowed. He knew what it felt like to lose someone, understood that Peter just wanted her back. There was a big chance that Malia was gone, even if she was still in there she would be hurt badly, but if there was still even the slightest chance that she was there and they could get her back, they had to take that chance. God, Liam knew that if this was about Scott, and he’d have that chance, he would’ve been in there very long already. Silently, sighing, he walked around Theo and climbed on his back again, nodding shortly. ‘Okay,’ he said, the determination slowly growing. ‘Let’s do this.’

‘Liam!’ Mason shouted, and he looked over his shoulder. ‘It’s dangerous, just… Please be careful,’ he pleaded, and Liam knew that it was. He saw how scared the rest of them was that they might never get out of there again, and Liam’s heart ached at the group of people who were all so concerned for him. For his safety.

‘We will,’ he said softly, promising it, and gave his thumbs-up. ‘We will.’\

Mason stayed quiet at that, a frown on his face, and Theo carefully made his way to the portal over all the rubble. ‘She could be alive in there,’ Liam mumbled quietly to him. ‘Someone has to help,’ and his heart hurt as he repeated the last words that Scott had said to him.

He was so angry then, but suddenly he understood, why Scott had done that. He was a good person, and Liam wanted too.

Theo dove off then, into the portal just as Liam looked over his shoulder and the last thing he saw where the scared looks on the faces of the people that cared about him, and Liam was hit with a tiny wave of regret. But he knew that they were doing the right thing.

Theo flew into the portal slowly, into a dimension that Liam had never seen before, and he looked around him with wide, shocked eyes. Around them, there seemed to be some sort of pink clouds, a weird fluffy stuff that he didn’t dare touch.

‘Careful,’ he said quietly. ‘There’s microbots and rubble from Argent’s campus everywhere.’

Theo nodded, and flew further slowly, steadily, moving around all the rubble and the weird pink stuff pretty easily.

‘Tell me when you see her,’ Theo said, as he dove out of the way of a few bigger obstacles being swung in their direction. Liam nodded. ‘I will,’ he said, and they flew further.

Suddenly, a bright, white sparkle caught Liam’s eye, almost hurting his eyes, and he squinted. It was the flying machine, that Malia had been in to travel from one portal machine to the other. ‘There!’ he exclaimed, pointing in the distance. ‘I see her, there she is!’

Theo nodded softly, flying a little faster into the direction that Liam was pointing at, towards the white flying machine. The relief that they’d found it, that they actually found her, coursed through him wildly.

They stopped next to it, looking inside of it through the windows.

Inside, a girl with shoulder long, dark blonde hair was still sitting in her chair with her eyes closed behind her helmet, her shoulders and her head slumped forward. Liam swallowed as he saw that she wasn’t awake.

Theo frowned, sending Liam a concerned and slightly pleading look. Liam nodded. ‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘Together, we can push that machine forward. Let’s get her home.’

Theo nodded, and they turned, pushing the machine with Malia in it out in front of them.

‘I’ll guide you out of here,’ Liam said, climbing on top of the machine. ‘You’re stronger with your suit,’ he explained when Theo frowned deeply, as if he didn’t like that idea one bit. He let out a sigh and Liam stayed on top of the machine, giving Theo directions for where they needed to go and steering him out of the way of upcoming obstacles efficiently. Together, with their handy teamwork, it didn’t take long before they saw the end of the portal again, the exit to the outside world.

It was only then, though, that an enormous piece of crumbled off brick flew their way, crashing into their path, and Liam knew that they couldn’t stop or steer away in time to avoid it. ‘Stop!’ Liam screamed, a wave of fear crashing around him, and it was before he knew it that Theo had dove out in front of him, shielding Liam from the brick with his suit. A loud crash followed, Liam screwed his eyes shut against the blinding light that came with it, and when he opened them again, Theo was swung far away from him, pieces of his suit broken off all around him. He groaned, holding and rubbing his head with both hands.

‘Theo!’ Liam screamed, his eyes already stinging with tears. In the back of his mind, he already knew that this didn’t mean anything good. How could Theo even fly, and get them out of here anymore, if he didn’t have a suit anymore?

Theo looked down, a large, purple bruise forming on the side of his head as he squinted in pain, as if his head hurt badly, and he focused on turning on his suit. There was a sputtering sound, and then nothing. Liam swallowed.

Theo looked up, and Liam could see how wet his eyes were. ‘My… My engine is broken,’ he said with a broken voice, trying to force out a laugh that only sounded like a sob to Liam’s ears.

‘No, no,’ Liam pleaded, his vision blurry. He held out his hand, desperately. ‘Just grab my hand, please, just, hold onto me…’

Theo groaned, forcing to reach out his hand with his tongue out of his mouth, and Liam’s heart raced with fear as he saw that it took Theo much more effort than it should. ‘Why would you even do that, you idiot!?’ he sniffled.

‘That thing… That stone, it would’ve killed you,’ Theo mumbled. ‘Don’t ask me to apologize, I’m not gonna do it anyway. Liam, I can’t get out of here now, not with my suit broken like this, but there’s still a way I can get you both to safety. Get you and Malia out of here, that’s what matters.’

‘No, no, no,’ Liam mumbled rapidly, shaking his head, his eyes stinging with tears. ‘No, please, I’m not getting out of here without you.’

‘Liam…’ Theo’s voice sounded calmly, soothing as ever, and Liam looked up at him with a blurry vision.

‘No, what about you?’ he pleaded, begging, for Theo to listen to him. ‘You’re gonna stay here, and then what? This thing will blow up, you’ll die if you stay here. I’ll… I’ll think of something, I’m not gonna leave you here!’

Theo stayed silent, and Liam crawled closer to him, the first of his tears now rolling down his face. ‘Please,’ he begged. ‘I can’t lose you too.’

It was true, he meant it. He still remembered the pain of losing Scott, how much that had hurt him and still did, every day, and he knew he couldn’t go through that again. Not with this boy, the one who comforted him and made every day since Scott was gone easier for him, not with this boy who had done so much for him and made him feel so special already, with everything that he'd done for him. He didn’t want to get out of here without Theo, he knew, not when he looked the boy into his clear green eyes, took in the light stubble on his chin, the look in his eyes that said he believed in Liam, and Liam knew he couldn’t. Even just the thought made him sick to his stomach.

Theo looked up at him, his eyes soft and green but with a look in them as if he’d already made up his mind, and Liam’s heart broke a little, aching in his chest. He shook his head. ‘No…’ he tried, his voice breaking.

‘Liam…’ Theo mumbled softly, quietly. ‘I’ll always be with you. But you have to get to safety.’

Liam shook his head, the panic that this was really happening crashing around him and making him feel nauseous, the bile rising in his throat as he crawled closer to Theo. ‘No, please, just… Let me do this…’

He pressed his hand against the side of Theo’s face, cupping his face, and brushed his lips against Theo’s softly, desperately, before pulling back. When he did, Theo stared back at him with wide eyes and reached out his hands, pulling him back in and brushed his lips over Liam’s hungrily. Liam sniffled, pulling back and looking at Theo with wet eyes, before he brushed them away with his soft hands.

Then, Theo nodded towards his big, gloved fist, the one piece of his suit that was still working, and placed it into the back of Malia’s machine, in a way that would send both her and Liam out of the portal, and looked up at Liam’s teary eyes with a proud look in his wide, watery eyes.

‘Theo…’ Liam started hopelessly. ‘I…’

‘I know,’ Theo cut him off, looking at him sincerely. ‘Me too.’

Liam stayed silent, a numb feeling washing over him, a bittersweet feeling at the unspoken confession at such inconvenient timing leaving a bitter taste in his mouth, and he looked down. ‘Then…’

He fell silent, not having to say anything anymore. Theo nodded, looking towards his glove and got it ready to push Liam and the machine out of the portal. Liam held onto Malia’s machine tightly, and when he glanced towards Theo again, he said with a broken voice: ‘I’ll be right behind you.’

Liam frowned at that, opening his mouth and ready to tell Theo off for saying something like that, for joking and trying to lighten the mood at a time like this, when Theo gave them the push they needed with the exact amount of force they’d need to get out. It was then that the machine started shaking around them and Liam flinched, and with a good, big amount of force, they were thrown out of the portal, back into the world with ashes and rubble that awaited them.

With a crash, they fell down onto the ground, Liam clinging to the machine with his eyes closed as he tried to avoid thinking about what exactly he had just left behind. It was more than just a person, he knew. It was what that person meant to him.

‘Liam!’ a voice in the distance shouted then, breaking through the noise in Liam’s mind, through the sensitive little bubble where he was in denial and Theo was still with him, and he forced his eyes open.

Mason.

‘They made it!’ he shouted, running closer with the rest following close behind him. Liam swallowed, forcing himself to look up and watch as Mason, Corey, Alec and Nolan came to a stop before him, the cheerful, happy looks on their faces disappearing rapidly.

‘Theo?’ Alec asked, the hopeful tone still sounding through his voice even if they knew something was off.

Liam’s heart ached at the name and he averted his gaze, sliding down Malia’s machine with shaking head, and looked back at the portal machine with a hurt sting in his chest. He didn’t have to say anything for the others to understand, but he didn’t trust his voice right then, didn’t trust himself to be able to speak without bursting into tears that were stinging in his eyes dangerously, as he had lost another person that he cared about. If he had known this outcome at the beginning… If he had known just how dangerous this all was… He never would’ve brought his friends into this kind of mess.

He could see the realization settling on his friends’ faces, it hurt to watch, the pain at losing their friend who they had known for so long, and their looks of sympathy for Liam at losing him as well, that he didn’t even want.

He just wanted Theo.

Liam swallowed, pushing the sting in his chest away as he couldn’t look at them like that right then, could only focus on the task at hand. ‘We have to… We have to open the machine,’ he started, his voice breaking, when suddenly a noise behind him made him look up and his head snapped around.

‘Look…’ Mason exclaimed, pointing towards the machine with his eyes widening.

Liam turned around so fast he could hear his head snapping, as the others watched too, to where the machine was sputtering and cracking, shaking back and forth, and Liam sucked in a breath.

It was gonna tear itself apart. They needed to seek shelter.

Before it did, though, a figure only slightly taller than Liam rolled out, crashing onto the ground with a groan, and Liam’s breath caught in his throat.

‘What… Is that…?’ Alec started unsurely next to him, but Liam had already started running, his feet going faster than he could actually even manage. ‘Theo!’

Theo coughed, standing up and brushing some of the dirt off his clothes, grinning when he saw Liam and the others coming towards him. ‘Missed me?’ he laughed, though he froze when Liam didn’t come to a stop before him and instead threw his arms around him tightly. He stiffened a bit in surprise, before reaching out his arms and hugging Liam back just as tightly, pressing himself against him and burying his face in Liam’s neck.

‘You idiot!’ Liam shouted as he pulled back, giving Theo a push with tears in his eyes. ‘You made me think you were gone, that I… That I’d lost you!’ His relief upon seeing Theo again so unexpectedly after saying goodbye was mixed with anger now, and Theo’s expression turned serious.

‘I told you I’d be right behind you,’ he said. ‘You’re not gonna get rid of me that easily.’

Liam bit his lip, blinking and trying to swallow away tears, but he wasn’t surprised when a few rolled down his cheeks anyway. He sniffled, stepping closer to Theo and pulling him into a hug again, resting his face against Theo’s neck and making sure that he was really there.

‘Never,’ Theo whispered close to his ear, holding him close. ‘I’m here.’

Liam nodded, pulling back a little and resting his hand on Theo’s cheek before he leaned forward and pecked Theo’s lips, a short, soft kiss, before Theo leaned back and gave him a longer one, and Mason said: ‘Okay, love birds, if you’re done with that, we’ve got enough to do here.’

Liam let out a chuckle at that, looking over his shoulder and reaching out his hand, taking Theo’s hand in his own and linking their fingers together. ‘Okay,’ he said, looking around the dusty battlefield that had still been Argent’s campus an hour ago. He saw Peter, standing by Malia’s machine and desperately trying to get the door open, and nodded.

‘We have to get Malia out of there,’ he said, nodding towards the machine. ‘Mason, call an ambulance.’

‘You got it,’ Mason nodded, and walked away to find a quiet place to make the call. Liam stayed behind with Theo as Corey, Nolan and Alec walked away too, to talk to Argent, Peter or clean up some of the dirt, and Liam looked towards him, still couldn’t believe that he had made it out and was actually here right now.

‘You did good,’ Theo said softly next to him, as if he knew about the doubts Liam still had, and took them away. ‘I’m proud of you.’

Liam smiled, a warm feeling in his chest, and he curled his fingers around Theo’s loosely. ‘I couldn’t have done this without you,’ he said, and Theo smiled. ‘You still did most of it yourself.’

Liam nodded, his heart skipping a beat, and he nodded towards the rubble surrounding them. ‘Come on,’ he said. ‘We should help.’

Theo nodded, clearing his throat, and together, they walked to the rest of their friends to help them with the aftermath.

***** 

In the end, it all went by pretty fast. The ambulance arrived and Malia was taken towards it, as she slowly woke up from her unconsciousness. Peter watched from a distance while they did, as a police offer dragged him towards a police car and he had his head held down in shame, silently wondering if he ever got visit her in the hospital and if she’d even want to see him.

That made two people who wouldn’t tell their secret, one who didn’t even know who saved her, and the other who would be locked behind bars and have no one to tell, or believe him when he did. There was only one other person left who knew the group by their names and faces. Argent was standing with his face towards the remains of his campus, as Liam and the others walked up to them.

‘I’m sorry,’ Liam said. ‘We should have done better.’

Argent turned towards them, letting out a sigh. ‘You kids saved my life,’ he said. ‘And hers,’ he nodded to where Malia was put in the ambulance. ‘You could’ve done a lot worse.’

‘But…’ Corey started, and Argent smiled. ‘Don’t worry about this,’ he said, gesturing towards his campus. ‘There are more important things in life than money.’

It didn’t reassure Liam completely, but he nodded anyway. Argent didn’t seem to be mad at them at least. ‘Just…’ he started, ‘Don’t tell anyone?’

Argent let out a laugh at that, and he nodded. ‘Don’t worry,’ he said. ‘Your secret’s mine. It’s the least I can do.’

Liam let out a reassured breath at that, happy that Argent agreed before the whole city found out and they’d be expected to solve all sort of crimes all over the place, and he nodded, turning towards the group. ‘Should we go then, guys?’ he asked. ‘Before anyone else spots us in these?’ He gestured towards his suit.

Theo let out a laugh, and he nodded. ‘Sounds good to me,’ he said, and they said goodbye to Argent before turning and walking towards their college, where they could take off their suits and continue their lives like normal teenagers.

*****

The mass clean-up of the campus continued on the days after that, and it was all over the news: who were the six heroes who saved their city and prevented what could have been a major disaster? The whole city seemed to be looking for them, yet no one knew who they were.

Liam was happy with it that way, as he went to school with his new friends that he had formed an amazing strong bond with after everything that happened, or hung out with at aunt Lisa’s café or went to the cinema with, or just built on random inventions with at the classroom at school where he had first met them. After the events at the campus, Theo had to be taken to hospital for a little while too to check his head, as that had gotten quite the impact, but when they asked how it happened he pretended to be one of the visitors of the opening, and seemed to be doing fine otherwise.

‘So,’ Theo asked, wiping his forehead as he looked towards Liam. ‘How are we gonna do this?’

‘Scott wanted to help a lot of people with this,’ Liam said, pulling the strip of tape from his arm to activate Baymax, so they could watch and improve him. ‘So that’s what we’re gonna do.’

Theo nodded, smiling. ‘Okay,’ and watched as Baymax slowly stood up from its box.

‘Hello,’ he said. ‘I am Baymax, your p…’ before falling silent.

Theo grinned, chuckling. ‘We’ve got work to do,’ and Liam laughed, nodding. ‘Yup.’

The thing was, it wasn’t annoying work to Liam, not when it was Baymax who had played the video of Scott and made him realize some things, like how he wanted to be more like Scott and help people too.

And maybe, in the future, they would do things like that too. Liam knew how much people appreciated the anonymous group of people who had saved their town, he heard about it in the streets almost everywhere he went. He’d said he didn’t want anyone to know their identities, out of fear that they wouldn’t be able to live their lives anymore, but if they could manage to keep them hidden, he wouldn’t mind helping people out every now and then at all. After all, it had all been quite an adventure, a painful one at times, but certainly one to remember. And there were already all kinds of people asking for them everywhere, remembering them and what they did even if they didn’t know who they were. Liam thought that if they kept that up, their memory would last longer, people would remember them longer, and maybe just in this town, they could be legends.

Immortals.

He smiled at the naive thought, Theo’s voice pulling him from his thoughts. ‘Li? Can you pass me that tool?’

‘Hm?’ he nodded dreamily, as for the first time in a while he realized that he was happy. Happy with his close friends, and with Theo. Since visiting Scott’s grave alone that first time he’d gone back, this time with Theo and thankful for the never ending support he got from him.

They worked on Baymax together too, as Liam wanted to get it finished with Scott’s thought in the back of his mind, long days and late nights, in the little office where Scott and Theo used to work together once, with the rest of the group out in the bigger classroom, close enough for Liam to know that they were there and he wasn’t alone, as he smiled at the sounds of their voices and laughter.

Now, he smiled as he overheard Alec overexcitedly sharing his idea for a new superhero suit, a big suit in the form of a dragon where you could look through the mouth, and that could spit actual fire. Liam snorted, laughing with Theo as the rest of the group told Alec to ‘shut up’ and ‘what a dumb idea that was.’

Theo laughed. ‘They’re amazing.’

‘Yeah,’ Liam chuckled. ‘They are.’ And he meant it, they were, and he was just happy to be in one place with his boyfriend and all his closest friends.

‘Do you think this is gonna take much longer?’ Theo asked then, nodding towards Baymax, who they’d been working on for weeks now.

Liam shrugged. ‘It takes as long as it takes,’ he teased, and Theo rolled his eyes. Liam laughed, because he knew Theo wanted to do other projects as well, but he himself didn’t mind so much. It was Scott’s project, and Liam didn’t mind doing anything that reminded him of Scott so much.

‘Liam!’ Theo interrupted his thoughts then, exclaiming loudly, and slightly startling him.

‘What!?’ he asked, startled.

‘It’s working, Baymax is working!’ Theo laughed, jumping around Liam and wrapping his arms around him, and Liam’s gaze wandered to the robot in front of them in awe.

It was working. Finally, after all these weeks, Baymax was working.

Liam grinned and Theo kissed him then, making Liam’s thoughts a little fuzzy, but in the background all he could hear clearly was: ‘Hello, I am Baymax. Your personal healthcare companion.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had a lot of fun writing this, really, a lot of fun. I hope it all wrapped up nicely :)


End file.
